Eighteen Years
by 26hannah26
Summary: Sequel to 'The Baby In The Woman' you don't really need to read that for this story to make sense. Temperance's life with her children. Note: no spoilers post season 2. Recently reuploaded due to those pesky page breaks disappearing. COMPLETE!
1. First Birthday

A/N Howdy everyone! Here is the sequel I promised you...for some reason, when I was reading it before it didn't sound like something I had written, if that makes sense. Also, am I meant to refer to Booth as 'Booth' or as 'Seeley'? If anyone could clear that up I would be grateful. There was something else I wanted to say but I can't remember what it was. Um...I don't know if I made this known before but this is like one chapter per year (that doesn't mean I'm only going to write one chapter per year don't worry). As I'm writing it doesn't currently have a title so the title it has as you are reading this probably sucks a bit. I think that's it. Enjoy! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Temperance turned the page, and scanned the images until her eyes settled on one in particular. Suddenly, she broke out in a smile as her mind transported her back to that day.

From her comfortable spot in an armchair by the window of the living room, she looked around the room and remembered all of the times she had sat here before, worn out after a long day looking after the children. It was definitely easier now they were older, and she had more time for herself, but they still depended on her for a lot. They knew she needed time alone sometimes, and now was one of those times. As she took a sip of coffee from the mug she was given for Mother's Day five years ago, her hand brushed over the photo.

* * *

Sometimes, Temperance Brennan wondered how she coped with the lack of sleep. She hadn't had a peaceful night, where she could just go to bed and not worry about waking up five times, in almost a year. It was always something. For the first six months one of the twins would wake up almost every single hour for a feed. It happened less often now, perhaps once every three or four hours, but occasionally one of them would wake up and start crying, eventually waking the other one. And then there was the challenge of getting them back to sleep again, and on a bad night that could take anywhere up to an hour. Sometimes she would be so tired she would give in and let whomever was making the noise sleep in the empty space in the bed beside her, which offered great comfort to the baby, but terrified Temperance no end – what if she fell asleep and rolled over?. If it wasn't the twins waking her up an ungodly hour, it was Booth – he had started working longer hours, on tougher and more stressful high-profile cases (perhaps to escape the madness at home, she often wondered) and wasn't getting home until two o'clock most mornings. When he did eventually get home, he would understandably be so tired, that he would flop down on the bed, causing her to wake up and wonder what on earth was going on. Then she would be wide awake for the hours, eventually falling asleep shortly before the alarm clock rang and the whole thing would start all over again.

Tonight, however, she was already awake, sitting cross-legged on the living room floor. Rolls of wrapping paper, tape, and numerous pairs of scissors were strewn everywhere, and a pile of already wrapped parcels were stacked beside her. At the moment she was wrapping up a picture book in pink flowery paper (for Bea), but about half an hour ago she had been hanging streamers on the walls. Brandon had already woken up twice, so the decorating had been abandoned for now. She had begun to think that she was going a bit far, but as Angela kept telling her, the twins would only turn one once. Even though they wouldn't actually _remember _the event, at least they were making the effort. And Hodgins would be filming the whole party, so they could watch it when they were older.

She sighed and leaned back against the sofa, subconsciously brushing flour from the front of her brown slacks. She had never made a cake in her life, but in the past year she had done a lot of things she had never done before. The smell of it baking in the oven wafted down the hall from the kitchen and danced in the air around her, making her stomach rumble. In all the chaos today, she had forgotten to eat anything, except breakfast which she always ate with the rest of her family, before Booth went to work and she and the twins went out to run errands.

'When would I have found the time,' she thought, 'between decorating the house, baking, preparing snacks, and picking up the dry-cleaning?'

But then that was how everything in her life seemed to be now – barely any time to do what needed to be done (if you had seen her house last week, you would know that being a mother of twins left little time for cleaning and general tidying), barely any time to spend time with Brandon and Bea as individuals like the parenting guides were always telling her, and no time whatsoever for her and Seeley to just be a couple. Their friends were less than willing to step up and offer to look after both children, so the last time the two of them had a romantic night to themselves was when they had finally convinced (or tricked depending on who was asked) Angela to take the twins, who were by then seven months old and a lot better behaved, albeit somewhat mischievous. They were forever getting into the low cabinets in the kitchen, much to the dismay of Temperance who was constantly trying to keep the place organised and tidy, and was terrified of them hurting themselves or each other. She rarely invited people over any more, for fear of them thinking she was a total slob who didn't care about the state of her home, even with two young babies. People were drawn to the twins, though. In the supermarket they attracted stares, and sometimes both awkward and stupid questions (Are they both yours? Did you conceive them naturally? Are they identical? Even if one was wearing blue and the other was wearing pink, nearly every person asked if they were identical). They were never short of visitors like Angela and some of Booth's friends, who thought they were adorable and perfect angels all of the time. The truth was, they were adorable when they were with their parents, just not angels. Every time she saw Bea and Brandon curled up on her lap before they went down for a nap, or gurgling beside each other in their playpen, or crawling around in the grass outside, her heart melted all over again like the first time she saw them after they were born. They were a handful, but she wouldn't trade them for all the sleep-filled nights in the world – they were so much fun to be around, and they made her so happy just knowing they were hers.

* * *

"Happy birthday, Twinkies! Are you ready to party?" Angela was obviously very excited about celebrating with her god-children (especially now that they were her official god-children – after many arguments, Booth finally got his way and Bea and Brandon were christened at the local church). They appeared to be less thrilled about the idea, and both just stared at her blankly, gurgling softly, while they played together on the floor. They used to play alongside each other – parallel play, as the experts called it – but not actually play _together –_ this was something that they had only just begun to do and it was very cute to watch.

"I told you a party was ridiculous, they don't even know what's going on. It's like any other day to them."

"Sweetie, I think they do, look at their little faces, they can tell something exciting is going on. You haven't started opening presents without me, have you?"

"No, we knew you'd want to be here. Did you bring a camera?"

"Of course!"

With one twin each on their laps, the two women helped them to unwrap the presents from their parents, grandparents and their parents' friends. The whole process only took about five minutes and, as usual with small children, they were far more taken with the wrapping paper than what the paper contained, much to the annoyance of Temperance. If she had known this would happen, she would have just got them a roll of paper each. She didn't really mind – as long as they were enjoying themselves, that was all that mattered – but she would have liked for them to at least show _some_ interest.

"Where's your daddy, Bea?" Angela asked the squirming baby on her knee, before setting her down on the floor with her brother, and helping to gather up all the mess and packaging.

"Picking up grandma and grandpa from the train station. They should be back soon." Temperance called from the kitchen while retrieving some more trash bags.

"And then we can party...This is so exciting!"

* * *

Three hours later, the party was almost over. Both babies were looking very tired as it was past their normal nap time, and Bea was doing her usual 'thumb in mouth, cuddling daddy' routine, which meant she was about to start crying if she wasn't in her crib soon. Brandon was sitting on the lawn with his grandma, playing with one of his new toys, but Temperance could tell he was getting sleepy. The three women from her antenatal group had been invited – Marie with her son Kyle, Jade with her daughter Elle, and Needra with her son Tim – and they were getting ready to leave, gathering changing bags and pushchairs before heading for the door.

"We had a great time, Temperance. Thanks for inviting us."

"You're welcome. Did you want to take a piece of cake home with you? I think I made one that was a bit too big."

The cake had gone down surprisingly well, even though there was still about a quarter of it left. She wasn't sure that the babies would like it, and she was worried about the safety aspect of blowing out the candles (even though it was their first birthday, there were two candles – one for each baby), but everything worked out without any problems, and for someone who had never made a cake before it tasted really good. Angela had managed to keep the adults entertained, and the babies pretty much entertained themselves, experimenting with the gifts the twins had just received – they hadn't really grasped the concept of sharing, yet, so there was some 'fighting' occasionally, but they were all very good. Even Parker, who was allowed to invite a friend so he wasn't the only 'big kid' at the party, had a great time, and was loving his new job as an older brother. At first it was hard for him not to be his dad's only child any more, but he soon forgot about that and seemed to have adjusted well to the change.

"I think we should put the twins down for a nap now, Bea looks like she's about to fall asleep." Booth said, sweeping his daughter's hair from her eyes, which looked like they were going to drop closed at any moment. "They had a really good time. You did a great job putting this all together."

* * *

After Bea and Brandon had been taken upstairs, their parents had put them in their pyjamas and then tucked them up in their cribs (at first, they had shared a crib which both of them found very comforting, but now they were too big so they had separate ones). Then Temperance and Booth had come downstairs and collapsed on the sofa. It had been a long day for everyone, and they hoped that meant that the twins wouldn't wake up tonight, not just for the sake of their parents, but also because their grandparents were staying in the room next door.

"I'm so tired." Temperance said, leaning her head on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Do you want to trade? I'll go out and do FBI stuff, and you can stay here and try to keep _your_ sanity."

"No thanks. I think chasing criminals is easier than looking after twins all day. I don't know how you do it."


	2. Terrible Twos

A/N Hey everyone! Here's chapter two hope you like it! Stay tuned for the next chapter it's a doozy if I do say so myself, but make sure you review this chapter if you love me! Thank you! Also sorry it took so long, I got distracted with a new story. [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due o page break errors]

"Brandon, come back here with that!"

"No!"

Temperance really didn't have time to chase him around the house this morning. She was meant to be in court in two hours, and she had really wanted to stop by the Jeffersonian on the way to pick up some case files that she could be looking over while she was waiting around, but things hadn't gone quite to plan. Bea had come down with chicken pox last week, so most of the day was spent trying to make sure she didn't scratch. The kitchen sink was backed up, and the repair man was only just finishing up now, but as long as he was still getting her free coffee on demand it was probably going to be a while before he left. Yesterday she had been given someone else's suit at the dry-cleaners, so this morning when she realised, she had to go back and get the right one. They were running dangerously low on basic food items, but no one had had the time to go out and do the shopping. And now Brandon had taken her make up bag while she was trying to get ready to leave. He was clutching it in one pudgy little hand, which was probably also sticky with something disgusting he had found to play with, and he had tottered off in quite a wobbly fashion, where he would no doubt deposit it's contents all over the floor – another mess for her to clear up. He seemed fascinated by it because his mother rarely wore anything other than moisturiser on her face nowadays. As if she had the time, or the inclination, or any kind of motivation – such as going out for a quiet meal.

"Hey, daddy's going to be home to look after you soon, why don't you go play for a little while?"

"No!"

She sighed, put down her hairbrush, and had soon caught up to him. He squealed as she picked him up and carried him over to the playpen in the corner of the living room, where Bea was already sitting, contently playing with blocks (it was always worrying when one of them was quiet for more than a minute – it usually meant that they were doing something that they shouldn't be, such as making a mess of the already permanently untidy house). She set him down, and he almost immediately dropped the make up bag, and found something much more interesting to play with.

"Bea, stop scratching." she said, removing her daughter's hand from where it was determined to relieve the itching on her leg. She heard the front door slam, and the jingle of keys being thrown haphazardly in the bowl on the side table in the hall.

"Hello?" Booth was now home, so that meant Temperance could concentrate on getting ready to leave to go to court, while he took care of the children.

"In here."

"Daddy's home! You two ready to have some fun?"

"Are you sure you can cope with them on your own?" she asked, picking up the make up bag, and inspecting it to make sure nothing had fallen out.

"Of course I can!"

"I can call someone to come help out..."

"You're only going to be gone for a couple of hours, I think I'll manage."

"All right. Make sure Bea doesn't scratch, I made their lunch and it's in the fridge, they need a nap at three, I should be back by five but if I'm not do you think you can give them a bath? Don't forget to pay the repair guy. I'll try and go to the supermarket on the way home so we all don't starve to death. Try and keep the place tidy...well, don't make it worse than it already is."

He almost didn't catch the last part, as she had already made her way back to the bathroom to finish getting ready, almost knocking her suit that was hanging on the back of the door onto the floor. Now he was finally home she had no distractions to stop her from leaving, so she could have sometime to prepare before she got on the stand. Of course, she _would_ be distracted, thinking about how he was having a meltdown. He wouldn't be able to cope on his own, he had only looked after them on his own twice in as many years. She did all the work around the house and she looked after them all day – all he did was show up at meal times and bring home a pay check every month. He was trying, but just not hard enough sometimes. This was the cause of most of their fights, which they tried to insist were just 'heated discussions'. Sometimes it would all get too much for her, and she would end up yelling at him for the littlest thing. It would then inevitably turn into an argument about who worked the hardest, even if it had originally been about whose turn it was to give the kids a bath. Everything was usually resolved after a few hours of frosty silence and cold looks, but the last time...Well the last time was different. Part of her wanted to drop whatever she was doing (and she was _always_ doing something) and run away, back to her old house, back to her job that she had almost given up before being told that she couldn't just leave them without any notice – even if she had just had twins – and back to before any of this had ever happened. But she saw her children, who had just turned two at the time, and thought if she left them there with _him _then there wouldn't be anything left to come back to – whenever she thought of running away, she always thought about coming back too, and if she believed in psychology she would say it meant that she was supposed to stay. She loved them too much to subject them to unwashed laundry and food not prepared in the usual way that they were used to. And she loved him too much to leave him, even if he drove her crazy sometimes. She had managed for two years without any ill effects (except that one time where she felt like 'accidentally' leaving Bea and Brandon in the supermarket, then drive home for a few uninterrupted hours of sleep). She could cope for a few more years, and then their school teachers could deal with them during the day, while she caught up on five years worth of rest.

* * *

Temperance turned her key in the lock, opened the front door, and was greeted by...silence. It had been a long time since the house had been this quiet, and she wasn't really sure if she liked it this way.

Had Seeley cracked under the strain and murdered the twins? Had the twins been so incensed at not having their mother to torment while they were meant to be napping that they had knocked him unconscious and run away together to join the circus? Sure, she had been gone for a while and had stopped to buy food and other household items, but had she been gone long enough for the three of them to get sick of each other?

She walked into the kitchen, but no one was there. She went back into the hallway and towards the living room, navigating her way around the laundry basket at the foot of the stairs and various toys that littered the floor. From the doorway, she put her head round the door, and was stunned at what she had found. Seeley, Bea and Brandon, all asleep on the sofa – at exactly the right time they were meant to be napping, he had managed to get them to actually do it. They all looked so peaceful, curled up together. At the very least she had expected to see one of them bawling. But all she could hear was that soft snuffling sound that they both made when they slept. Temperance wanted to wake him up to ask him how he had done it, but that would probably mean waking the twins up as well. That was definitely not what she wanted.

As she tried to quietly sneak back out of the room (not easy when walking in high heels on their wooden floor, and now that she was consciously trying not to make a noise, she inevitably would), she felt a little bit disheartened – why had he managed to get them to nap at the right time, and why had he managed to look after them with no problems, when she had the constant battle of getting them to the things in their routine every day.

The phone rang, and Temperance dashed to the side table that it sat on, desperate not to wake anyone and then have to try and get the twins back to sleep.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver, her voice barely above a whisper even though she was no where near the living room.

"_It's Angela. I need your advice."_

"OK, go ahead."

"_I have a date tonight and I'm not sure what to wear. That blue dress I got when we went shopping a few weeks ago, or a black skirt and that pink blouse?"_

"Why are you asking me? You know clothes aren't my thing."

"_You're supposed to be my best friend, and I really want this to go well. So please, just tell me what you think, because I feel like my brain may have fallen out."_

"Who is this guy, Ange?"

"_Um... it's Jack."_

"Jack? As in Jack Hodgins? From work? Jack the bug guy?"

"_Yeah, that's the one. There's something between us, but I don't know what it is. So I have to make a good impression."_

"Wear the blue dress. And just try not to panic, OK? It's going to be fine..."

"_Are you upset that I didn't tell you before?" _Angela asked, noting the her friends change in tone of voice.

"No. I'm just kind of shocked, you know? I didn't know you liked him in that way."

"_Well you haven't been around much since you had the babies. We haven't had chance to just talk in a long time. I sort of miss just having someone to talk about this kind of stuff with, in a non-work environment."_

"I know. I'm sorry, we should do something – just me and you, no babies and no work. I promise."

"_That would be good. Well, can we sort it out another time, or I'm going to be late. I'm really starting to panic. I just don't want to mess this up!"_

"I know, Ange. You're going to be fine."

"_Thanks, Sweetie."_

"Have a good time."

"_You too. Bye."_

A good time, indeed, Temperance thought as she hang up the phone and removed her shoes. She sat down at the kitchen table and began to rub her feet, thinking of something she could do that wouldn't make any noise. Hoovering was out of the question, the washing machine had started making a noise like there was a spoon stuck in there (there probably was, something else for her to pay to repair), and she didn't want to risk the creaking stairs to go and tidy the bedrooms.

She needn't have worried though, because before she could make up her mind, she felt something tugging on the hem of her skirt. She looked down and saw Bea, with her comfort blanket in her hand, very obviously awake now.

"Hey you," she said, lifting her daughter on to her lap for a cuddle. "What happened to nap time?"


	3. Three's A Crowd

A/N Bonjour everyone! How are we all? Sorry for the delay on this chapter I found it quite hard to get into the right frame of mind to write this. But it's here now so thats ok. Be warned that fluff is not my strong point, I feel that I write angst a lot better - so this chapter isn't all that great. Tell me what you think and I will love you forever! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break and factual errors]

"Ange, do you remember when I was pregnant with the twins, and how I said I would never do it again?"

"Yeah, that was in between you cursing the fact that you hadn't seen your toes in months and sobbing hysterically after the first week they were home. I remember it well, sweetie. We all do."

"So how come we are here, yet again, shopping for more maternity clothes?" Temperance asked, patting her already expanded stomach. And she had only just managed to start seriously shifting the baby weight from the last time...

They hadn't been trying for another baby, in fact they hadn't ever actually discussed going through what she lovingly referred to as 'that ordeal' again. Seeley had finally found someone from work who could look after the twins (a friend of his, whose wife had been dying for a baby ever since they had got married, and had no idea what he was getting himself into when he agreed to look after Bea and Brandon for the night) so he and Temperance finally got an evening to themselves, with no noisy children or pagers going off every half hour, informing them that there was still a never-ending amount of work to do. They had been careful, but somehow they had managed to get pregnant without putting a whole lot of effort into it, just like the first time.

"You and that boyfriend of yours can't keep your hands off each other? Or maybe you just think you will really enjoy the challenge of two three year-olds and another baby. Or maybe you're just trying to steal my thunder."

"Your thunder?"

"It's a phrase – some guy in the seventeen hundreds invented a thunder machine for a play but then some other playwright stole it from him. But in this case, two months after Jack and I get engaged, you announce that you have re-opened the baby factory. I'm just saying it's a little more than a coincidence."

"You are joking, right? You know we didn't plan this."

"Of course I'm joking, sweetie, it's just fun to tease you." Angela replied, putting an arm around her friend. After they had paid for the new clothes, they would be going on to some of the fashionable wedding dress boutiques. She wanted to get her dress now, because she only wanted to be engaged for as long as it took for her to plan the wedding. "Are you looking forward to trying to find a bridesmaid dress that flatters your bump?"

"Spending hours in bridal shops is just about my idea of hell. Anyway, you can't have a pregnant bridesmaid."

"Well just don't stand sideways in the photos, then. And what will I do if you're not standing up there with me? I need you there telling me not to panic!"

"You two are in love, what could you possibly have to worry about? Everything will be fine and you will live happily ever after."

* * *

After nearly three hours, Angela still hadn't decided on a dress. She had bought every bridal magazine that had been published since she got engaged, and spent hours scouring the pages looking for ideas, and knew exactly what kind of dress she was looking for – something unique, but in also in a classic style. But what the bridal magazines didn't say was that you may either find the dress you want in every shop or you may not ever see the one you want – it was all luck really, when it came down to it. When it became all too clear that Temperance wouldn't be able to walk around for too long without needing to sit (she wasn't tired, just bored, but she had started playing 'the pregnancy card' as soon as she realised that her friend wasn't going to rest until she found _the _dress) or have a bathroom break, Angela decided to call it a day. She felt as if it was fate – that she was never meant to get married if she couldn't find the perfect dress.

"When you and Booth get married, you will know how important it is to find the right dress – the pictures and memories stay with you forever, so you don't want to be wearing the wrong thing." Angela said, hearing her friend sighing with a mixture of boredom and frustration behind her as she tried on yet another white creation.

"We aren't getting married. There's no need."

"Does he know?" Temperance looked at her over the top of the bridal magazine she was absent-mindedly flipping through. "He's a traditional kind of guy, I just assumed he would want to get married."

"We kind of skipped that step. And I think he's known me long enough to know that I don't want to go through all the hassle, when all that will change between us is the fact that we will wear rings on a particular finger. It's totally unnecessary."

"But that's not the point. When you get married, you become a different person. I'm not going to be Angela the party girl any more, because I don't need to be – I've found the right man for me, so now I'm going to be his wife. Not in a dowdy 'housewife' kind of way, in a romantic 'spend the rest of my life with the right guy' kind of way. And I can't wait. It's all I've ever wanted since I was a little girl."

"You actually want to be a different person? To lose your identity?" Since she had become a mother, Temperance had started feeling more and more like she was losing her own identity. She was no longer, or only rarely, Doctor Brennan, the tough, independent woman with either a phone or clipboard permanently fixed in her hand. She was Mom, the perpetually tired 'woman' (although zombie seemed more fitting sometimes) who wore minimal make up, ill-fitting drab clothes, and whose main goal in life was to make sure her kids didn't kill each other or themselves. Occasionally she was Temperance, practically the wife of an FBI agent who was hardly ever there. This past year he had gotten better at realising that she was more than just a child minder that he didn't have to pay, and when he was around he took charge of the children and let her chill out. But those few hours a week that she had to herself weren't enough sometimes – she couldn't get back who she used to be when she knew that her tranquil bubble was about to be burst by someone needing her for something – work, the kids, Seeley, it was always something. How could Angela possibly want her life to turn out like that?

"I didn't think of it like that. I never really wanted to get married or do the family thing, but after my first date with Jack...I don't know, it just all changed. I can't even describe it." she shook herself out of the daze she had gotten lost in, thinking about how different he was out of work, how she hadn't ever expected to fall for him as hard as she had – that jarring, bone-shattering feeling that hit her when their hands brushed for the first time, that she realised she would never recover from. "Do you not feel that way about Booth?"

"Of course I do," Temperance replied, gesturing down to her stomach. She really did – that was how she got pregnant the first time – but she was a lot more cynical about most things than Angela, so she the two women saw things very differently. When Angela saw a romantic bouquet of roses she saw a grand gesture of how much someone loved and cared about her. Temperance saw something that would wilt in a couple of weeks and that she would have to throw out because no one else would. It wasn't the right attitude to life to have, but that's just how she was.

* * *

Struggling to squeeze into her purple satin bridesmaid's dress (which was quite unflattering and even more uncomfortable), Temperance began to wonder if Angela was having second thoughts about the wedding. She had managed to put on her dress without a major crying incident, but when she saw herself in the mirror with her hair and make-up done as well, she went very quiet and asked for a moment alone to compose herself. That was ten minutes ago.

"Ange?" Temperance asked through the door, "Are you coming out soon? We need to get to the church."

She heard sniffling from the other side and eventually heard the meek reply, "I'm almost done, I just need a moment."

The door that stood between the two women opened, and Angela stood there looking like someone had just told her that the car she had lent to her grandmother had had it's breaks cut.

"I'm afraid. I didn't think I would be, but I really am."

"You have nothing to worry about! It's just nerves. Everything is going to go like you planned it and you will live happily ever after. Trust me."

"I do trust you, sweetie, but what if this is a mistake? What if he isn't the one?"

"You know he's the one, Lord knows you haven't stopped telling me about it!" she replied, trying to comfort her friend by putting her arm around her. "Honestly, as soon as you walk down that aisle and see him standing there looking back at you, what you're feeling right now will just be a distant memory. It will be like it's just you and him."

"You sure you don't want to get married?"

With perfect timing, Angela's father came around the corner to take them to the church. The cars that they had rented were parked out front, and everybody down stairs was getting impatient. The two women looked at each other.

"Here we go..."

As Angela walked down the aisle, led by Temperance and her two other bridesmaids, and accompanied by her father, all eyes were on her. She looked beautiful – she had finally chosen a long white dress that pooled around her feet in a very elegant way, with an antique lace trim and matching veil. In her hands was a large bouquet of yellow daisies and she had a few in her hair, too. The light was streaming in through the stained glass windows, casting a multi-coloured glow over everything and making the whole scene even more magical. They reached the altar and she handed her bouquet to Temperance, while she held her soon-to-be husband's hands. The minister greeted their friends and family and the service began. Neither the bride or groom were particularly religious, but both had wanted to get married in a church, for the atmosphere more than anything.

Temperance looked to the crowd and saw Seeley, Brandon and Bea (who were, for once, behaving themselves even though they weren't the centre of attention like they normally were whenever they went anywhere – twins were a novelty to most people) and they smiled back at her and waved. She had dressed Bea in a cute dark red dress with a little hair band to go with it, and Brandon in a miniature version of his dad's own black suit – dark colours weren't the most festive for a spring wedding, but she could only hope it would hide the stains they were sure to pick up during the day. Getting dressed up that morning had been fun for them both, and more than once someone had commented on the fact that Bea would make a great bridesmaid. "I'm sure she would" she had felt like saying, "But not at her mother's wedding."

She tuned back into the ceremony and what was being said.

"Do you, Jack Stanley Hodgins, take this woman, Angela Pearly-Gates Montenegro, to be your lawful wedded wife – to have and to hold until death do you part?"

"I do." Jack replied.

"And do you, Angela Pearly-Gates Montenegro, take this man, Jack Stanley Hodgins, to be your lawful wedded husband – to have and to hold until death do you part?"

"I do."

"Then it is my great pleasure, ladies and gentleman, to present to you Mr and Mrs Hodgins!" There was a rapturous applause from the congregation as the newly married couple shared their first kiss, and began to make their way back down the aisle.


	4. Fourth Of July

A/N Hey everyone! How's life? Right I know I promised some of you this would be up by last weekend but I got ill and lost me mojo (lmao Owly) anyway... at least it's here now! So this chapter has been giving me grief especially the last bit, which I still think is a tad iffy. Let me know what you think, please, as always reviews are welcomed, encouraged and treasured! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Astrid Joy Booth was born on July 6th, three months and four days after Angela and Jack's wedding. It had been a hot day, one of the hottest of the year so far, and the day had gone without any major events – Zack had come over to discuss his latest research project with her, but it had turned into more of a catch-up session as they hadn't seen each other since he had taken a teaching position at Howard University. He played with the twins while they talked, and then he left in the afternoon when she had to start getting dinner ready.

The day before was a Friday, so Parker arrived at about seven that evening to stay for the weekend. He relished his role as a big brother, and his favourite part was entertaining the twins while they were in the bathtub. Seeley had taken over getting them clean when Temperance was about five months pregnant, because her back couldn't handle her being bent down for too long – this time was very different from when she had Brandon and Bea, and at least this time she wasn't carrying two babies, but it was still hard work, especially when she was running around after them all day.

Her contractions had started about an hour and a half after the kids had gone to bed. The news had just started, and she had been on the verge of falling asleep on the sofa when a jolt of pain shook her to attention. The next few hours were a blur of frantic calls to the hospital, panic as to what to do with the sleeping children upstairs, and Temperance trying to convince her frazzled boyfriend that they didn't need to leave until the contractions were closer together. They eventually left for the hospital at three thirty, after Angela had arrived to look after things while they were gone.

That was four months ago. Now Temperance was getting ready for her first night out since Astrid had been born. Brandon and Bea were with Angela and Jack at their house (so they could get some rather extreme practise of what it would be like when they had kids of their own), and the newest member of the family was with her grandparents for the evening (they had come down for their son's birthday, which was tomorrow).

"You ready to go?" Seeley asked, coming into the bedroom to change his shirt after Astrid spit up on the one he was wearing. A new baby had really brought them together again.

"Just give me a few more minutes," she replied, trying to squeeze into one of her nicest pre-pregnancy skirts. "Maybe dinner isn't such a good idea after all, I might not be able to fit back into the house."

"You look great." A horn honked from outside in the street, the sound breezed through the open window and mingled with the rhythm of the rain beating down against the panes of glass. "Taxi's here. Come on, lets go."

They went downstairs, said goodbye to Seeley's parents and went out the front door to the waiting car. Cruising through the streets of the city, the street lights shined through the rain-slicked windows of the cab, making an almost leopard print pattern on Temperance's skirt. She leaned her head on the strong shoulder next to her.

* * *

After dinner, Temperance and Seeley took a walk down town. The rain had stopped and the sky had cleared, but there was a slight chill in the air. They walked along in a comfortable silence, hand in hand, until he suddenly broke the silence.

"Temperance, what's the most pointless thing you've ever done?"

"What?"

"Come on, humour me for a second."

"Oh, I don't know... I guess getting my ears pierced was kind of stupid. I hardly ever wear earrings."

"Is that it?" He was laughing at her now. She had never been one of the cool girls in high school, and from what he had told her of his teenage years he had been quite popular. There had never been anything reckless for her to do by herself, there didn't seem to be much point if there wasn't anyone else there to bask in the humiliation of doing something completely stupid.

"Well I'm sorry I'm not very exciting."

"It's sweet," he said, putting his arm around her.

"Why do you want to know anyway?"

"I know you don't do things unless it's worth it."

"Well observed. Where are we going?"

"Nowhere special, I was thinking we should just stroll and see where we end up." He went quiet, and looked down at the ground. There seemed to be something on his mind, but she couldn't figure it out – sometimes she could and sometimes she couldn't, but he never usually kept anything from her. He inhaled sharply, as if mentally preparing himself, and looked up to meet her gaze. "I think we should get married."

"What? Why?"

"Because I love you, is that a good enough reason?"

"But...What's the point?" It suddenly clicked that this was what he had been planning the whole time, and why he was asking her the most pointless thing she had ever done – he had known all along that she thought it was pointless. Most girls would be over the moon if their boyfriend proposed, but not her. She was happy with things the way they were.

"I knew you'd say something like that." he sighed as she turned and began walking away from him. "Temperance, even though you think it's totally unnecessary, why don't you at least talk about this with me?"

"Because I'm not going to change my mind."

"Well what about the kids? Their parents should be married, don't you think?"

"I honestly don't think it matters to them..."

"It matters to me!"

"I know what you're doing, and if you think you can use your religion as a reason to force me into this, then you're very wrong! You know why I don't want to get married, so why can't you just accept that?" She was shouting at him now, really laying into him. Before, their voices had been raised above their normal volume, but right now she didn't care what people thought of her – even if someone she knew happened to be walking past, she would still not care – so she was really letting him know how she felt.

"Would you just calm down, stop shouting, and _talk_ about this." he was quiet for a few moments, then began again. "Is it me?"

"Is what you?"

"I'm not the one you want to be with."

"Of course you are. I just don't see what we would gain from spending money to get a piece of paper that says that we are what we knew we were before. Nothing will change between us."

"Is it the money that's the problem? We don't have to have a big wedding if that's not what you want..." He was looking at her like a little boy who is trying to bargain with his mother, so he can have something sweet when dinner is almost ready – now she knew where Brandon got it from. She shook her head.

"That's not the reason. Can you not see why I think it's pointless?"

"I guess. But it can't hurt, can it? Why don't we just talk about it some more and then make a decision. You don't even have to change your name, that's not important to me. Or are you only telling me you don't want to get married just so you can keep hold of this persona you created for yourself? Temperance Brennan who doesn't want to follow the crowd, and who just wants to be totally different to everyone else? No one would think any less of you if we got married, you know."

She sighed. He just wasn't going to back down on this one – it was really important to him, but she had more than a feeling that his parents had something to do with him suddenly voicing he need to make everything between them more official. They were very traditional and were very disapproving of her relationship with their son, and they hadn't gotten over the fact that all of their grandchildren were 'born in sin'. If it was something that he really wanted to do, then surely he would have asked her to marry him after the twins were born, and not now after their third child had been born?

* * *

They sat down on one of the benches that lined the walkway beside the river. The cool breeze bounced over the water and blew in their faces, sending chills down their spines.

Suddenly she heard voices coming from further down the river – the whole time they had been there, no one else had joined them down on the embankment, so when the silence between the two of them was broken they were rudely shaken from their thoughts where they had been languishing for the past half hour, neither knowing what to say to the other to try and sort this whole thing out. She saw the silhouette of a couple walking towards them, hand in hand like they themselves should have been, instead of sitting as far away from each other as they could with matching looks of frustration etched on their faces.

"Temperance? Temperance Brennan, is that you?" One half of the couple, a tall, slim blonde woman, had called out to her. She couldn't place her at first, but after a few seconds of staring with a bewildered look she thought that she might recognise her from somewhere.

"Oh...hi..."

"Jennifer Scott. From high school? Well, it's Jennifer Martinson now – this is my husband Larry." He said hi, and then nodded in Seeley's direction as a 'guy-greeting'. The name rang a bell to her, but she didn't remember them being friends – she didn't really have _any _friends – although she seemed like the kind of person who would have been popular and maybe even a bit of a bully. In fact, she was sure that she had been one of the girls who made her teenage years hell.

"Wow. It's been a long time," she said, not entirely sure if it had been a long time at all – she could have passed her in the street last week and wouldn't have known that they went to school together. "How are you?"

"I'm great, how's life been treating you?"

"Good."

Jennifer looked over Temperance's shoulder. "And who's this, then?"

"Oh this is my...this is Seeley. My Fiancé." She wasn't sure why she did it, because she had never been a particularly competitive person when it came to everyday life, but seeing her old school tormentor and her fairly obviously metro-sexual husband, whose lives were probably absolutely perfect, made her want to try and beat her. As soon as the words left her mouth, she had regretted it – now she would have to marry him, or worse he would leave her because he thought she saw the whole thing as a joke or as a way to get back at someone she hadn't seen for ten years.

But in a strange way, it felt almost right to refer to him as that.

* * *

After Jennifer and Larry said goodbye and carried on walking down alongside the river, Seeley turned to Temperance with a look on his face that she just couldn't interpret – confusion, anger, frustration, distress and what looked like hope all flashed in his eyes at the same time.

"What the hell was that?"

"I...It..." She gave up trying to explain, and just shrugged and looked at her feet. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what had just happened, but it was something strange, like a reaction in her brain that made her realise that maybe this was what she wanted all along. Or maybe it wasn't. She was even more confused now than she had been before.

"Of all people, I never thought you would do something like this – you said that to her because you think she's better than you... I thought you didn't care what people thought of you, Temperance, but I guess I was wrong."

"It's not like that!" she said desperately, a little panicked that he knew what was going on in her head. "I saw them together, how happy they were, and I realised that that's what I want too."

He stood there looking at her, obviously contemplating what to say to her. "After everything you just said? What we were just arguing about?"

"Yes."

The walls that she had been building around herself for years were beginning to crumble in front of her eyes. With her defence almost completely gone, she felt more vulnerable than she had in a long time. She went to lean against the railing that stood between her and the cold blue mass that swirled in front of her. Sighing, he came and stood next to her.

"Is that a 'yes, you'll marry me'?"

She nodded, not breaking her gaze with the water.

"Well we should do this properly, then." he said, sliding a ring box out of his pocket. He hadn't had chance to give it to her when he asked the first time, he was so nervous that it actually slipped his mind. He slid it along the iron rail that she was gripping tightly with her hands, as if she was trying to stop herself jumping over it. She opened it slowly and was greeted by the sparkling diamond ring inside.

"Wow...It's beautiful."

"Temperance Brennan," he said, getting down on one knee. "Will you marry me?"

She looked up, and stared right into his eyes.

"Yes."


	5. Five Minutes

A/N Howdy! OK, so here's the deal - I have no idea what five year olds do except what I have written about, so this chapter is pretty short and not much happens. But this will all be rectified when I post the next chapter - stop reading now if you want to be surprised (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!) - so Temperance and Booth get married, and I think it's only fair that you guys should have some input on what you think their wedding should be like. What would you love to see happen, do you want some drama or should everything go smoothly, what is Booth's middle name (lol!) etc. I ask this mainly because I have no idea which way I want to take things and I'm in need of some of your wisdom. So your ideas will be noted and I will try to make everyone happy. Right, now that's over, I'm going to shut up and let you read! Reviews are welcomed and treaured, as always! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Temperance wasn't sure if she really liked, or agreed with, the idea of paying for education. On the one hand, Brandon and Bea would get the education she never had in public school, and she only wanted what was best for them. On the other hand, she believed that it was wrong for her to pay for something that really should be free to everyone – even if they _could _afford it. Booth agreed with her on that point. But he also wanted them to have a Catholic upbringing, much to their mother's annoyance, which they wouldn't necessarily get in a public school. They hadn't really thought about it or discussed it in depth.

Somehow she had allowed Booth to make the decision, which shocked her a little bit – she hated not being in control. And he had decided that private school would be best for them. Now it was the twins' first day of school, and she still wasn't sure if they had made the right choice.

"You want to grow up to be smart like your Uncle Zack, don't you?" she asked, seeing the apprehensive look on both their faces. It amused her sometimes how they were so unalike in most things, but sometimes had the same expressions etched on their faces. But standing in front of her in their uniforms they both looked so cute, and so grown-up. It was amazing to her how fast the time had gone, and how just five short years ago she didn't even have them. Now they weren't the tiny babies that she would always think of them as, but they were proper big kids who would soon be grown up and leaving her.

* * *

She dropped them off at their new school on her way to the lab. Her and Booth's roles had been reversed since he was shot apprehending a murderer about six months ago – she now went out to work during the day whilst he stayed home with the children (although now it would just be Astrid he looked after until the twins got home).

All of the other mothers were separated into two very distinct groups, standing on opposite sides of the school yard like immaculately groomed tribes. One group were dressed head to toe in elegant designer clothes, looking somewhat overdressed for taking their children to school, draped in pearls and pashminas, wearing pointy high heels and carrying handbags bigger than themselves. On the other side were the 'sporty chic' mothers, wearing tennis outfits and running clothes, looking pristine and composed without a sweat mark, crease or mud stain in sight (the day had only just started and she already had a large orange mark on her shirt where Bea's juice box had exploded in her hand, that she was now trying to hide by buttoning her jacket up all the way).

As Temperance walked through the school yard with Brandon and Bea, her ears were assaulted with snippets of conversation coming at her from all directions.

"I'm taking Ella-May to 'Mini Mozart' classes on Fridays. Last week they were doing traditional Italian nursery rhymes..."

"Dr Friedman says the collagen fillers will settle in a few days...do you think they look natural?" one skeletal woman said (almost unintelligibly) through the pair of hugely inflated lips that appeared to be attached to her face.

They were all chatting animatedly, either with other 'Momzillas' or into phones permanently clamped to their ears, but as they caught sight of Temperance, one by one they all became quiet and turned to stare at her through their large round sunglasses. It felt like her first day of high school again, when all she was doing was dropping her children off.

She saw a lone dishevelled woman smiling over at her from a few feet away, her own child stood quietly by her side (a boy probably about the same age as the twins). The woman, who didn't seem to fit into either of the groups that they were surrounded by and was dressed in a crumpled brown suit, began to walk over to where she was standing, still overwhelmed by this new environment.

"Hi! I'm Kathy, this is my son Charlie. You new here?"

"Yes. I'm Temperance and these are my children, Brandon and Bea."

"They're so cute! Twins?"

She nodded, and then listened as Kathy explained how she had been nervous when Charlie first started at the preschool, but they both soon settled in. Temperance wasn't sure whether to believe her or not – seeing her standing alone except for her son made it all too clear to her that if your husband wasn't a banker and you had nothing better to do all day than to spend his money, then you wouldn't be welcomed with open arms into the close-knit circle of the other women around them.

* * *

When she arrived at the Jeffersonian later that morning after leaving Astrid at home with Booth, Temperance was instantly greeted by the news that had been assigned a new partner. Agent Matthews. They had never met before, so she wasn't really sure what to expect. He introduced himself in a thick Texan accent and shook her hand.

"I hear you were knocking boots with your old partner, so I'll expect the same courtesy." He winked at her and added, "Naw, I'm just joking with you. I don't think my girlfriend would care too much for that – neither would my wife." He let out a throaty chuckle. She could tell working with him would just be non-stop fun...

They walked through the lab, him chatting animatedly and her replying with short one word answers, until they arrived at their destination. When he finally gave her a chance to say something, she briefly talked him through the case and what they knew so far – Caucasian woman, about five feet seven inches tall, death most likely from strangulation. The main suspect was her brother-in-law, who was the last person to see her before she ended up on the large steel table in front of them. Agent Matthews pondered over the information that he had just been given with a confused expression on his face, and then began to speak again abruptly.

"So...Do you like this guy as the doer?"

"Do I like him? No, of course not, I believe that he killed this woman." she replied, curious as to why he would ask such a question. Working with him was very different than what she was used to, and it was taking her some time to get used to all the changes that had been made while she was gone.

"Right. And here I was, thinking you were supposed to be some kind of genius..." he muttered to himself. He nodded in Temperance's direction. "I'll see you later. As I'm obviously of no use here, I'm gonna go and question that _sonuvvabitch_ brother-in-law of hers."

"Wait, am I not going with you?"

"I really don't think that's necessary. I'm more than capable, thank you very much."

"I always went with Booth." She was slightly annoyed that on her first day back she was going to be stuck in the lab all day while he went out to chase the bad guy.

"No offence, ma'am, but there's a lotta things you did with Booth that you ain't gonna do with me. Unless I get lucky..." he winked again, turned, and left the lab.


	6. Party of Six

A/N OK, so I have a lot to say up here, just bare with me. Firstly, I would like to apologize for the chapter with Angela and Jack's wedding - the tv package we have in my house no longer carries the channel that shows Bones in the UK, so I saw about 4 eps of season 2 and therefore had no idea that they actually had a wedding (and also haven't seen any of the new season, bummer). So it probably made you think "what's she on about?" but hopefully that has cleared that up. Secondly, it frustrates me to no end that I'm not one of those people how can write a ten page chapter in a day, I just can't do it, so I'm really sorry for the long wait between chapters. Thirdly, I really had fun writing this chapter, even though it took a lot of rewriting and cutting and adding and such, and I hope you don't think the end is a bit lame. I think that's about it. Oh yeah, if you are sensitive to the odd innuendo here and there, I sincerely apologise (and if you didn't pick up on any innuendoes, then just ignore it, there were never any in there!). Reviews please would be spectacular. Oh, and happy new year!

She had planned a nice family night out, just the five of them, but then Mrs Booth had come into town to help plan the wedding (although she wasn't really helping, just planning the whole thing and not taking anyone else's ideas into consideration) and what was meant to be a pleasant evening was now a party-of-six disaster.

Rolling her eyes and sighing loudly before excusing herself, in an attempt to make her frustration known to all, Temperance got up from the table and went across the restaurant to the bar to order herself another strong drink. The talk had once again shifted to the wedding, and it would be all down hill from there, eventually culminating in a heated exchange of words. Her soon to be mother-in-law, who was of course only trying to make sure her son's big day went as perfectly and smoothly as it would if Martha Stewart herself had planned it, had made her feeling quite clear on the subject – it was to be a traditional Catholic ceremony in their traditional Catholic church. Which meant the bride would be trussed up like a cake in a puffy off-white dress (_'so no one asks any questions that they don't already know the answers to'_) with her three illegitimate children walking ahead of her up the aisle in similarly ugly outfits, hand picked by Mrs Booth.

"She's only trying to make sure we have a good day." Seeley said, coming to stand beside her at the bar.

"Please, lets just elope. We can do the wedding and the honeymoon all in one go – get a cheap flight to Vegas and blindly pick a place we want to do it. It would be so much easier than all this...fuss."

"Should it worry me that you've put so much thought into this? And that sounds really romantic, by the way."

"Use sarcasm all you want, but are you not sick of the whole thing? Don't you think it would be easier to leave town? You were the one who said that it didn't matter to you how we got married, all that mattered was that we were actually doing it."

"I know, but if we're getting married we may as well do it in style, right?"

"Why?"

"Because you only do it once." he said, leaning over to kiss her on the lips.

- - - - - - - Three Months Later - - - - - - -

"Well, for someone who didn't want a bachelorette party, you sure seem to be getting into the party spirit," Angela said, seeing Temperance knock back another shot of tequila – her fifth so far. "I'm glad you're having a good time."

"It's good to be out of the house, letting loose. It _is_ my last night of freedom, right?"

"Oh, come on, it's not like we live in the eighteen-hundreds and you're going to spend the rest of your life chained to the stove! And even though you'll be Mrs Booth, you're still going to be the same old Temperance."

"I'm not going to be Mrs Booth, I'm keeping my name."

"And when did you decide this?"

"When we got engaged. And besides, I think my name has changed enough over the years, don't you?"

They were interrupted by a waitress bringing two cocktails over to their table, and telling them that two guys from across the bar had sent them over. Before Angela could stop her, Temperance had picked up the glass and taken a large sip.

"Oh great – now they're going to think it's OK for them to come over here and start hitting on us."

"Why?"

"'Cause you accepted their drink."

"Oh. Well we can just tell them we're taken, I'm sure they won't mind."

The two men walked over to their table and introduced themselves – Randy, average-looking with a bit of a beer gut, and Joe, tall and slim with a pinched face that reminded Angela of a rat.

"You ladies up for a game of strip poker? We got a van out back with plenty of room for two more." Randy asked with what Angela could only imagine was his 'seductive' look.

"What's strip po..."

"No thanks. Sweetie, we have an early meeting tomorrow, remember?" she interrupted, nudging her friend and starting to help her out of her seat. "So we'd better be going."

"Oh come on, I'm having a good time, Ange!"

"Yeah Ange, she wants to stay and have fun with us." Joe mocked, following them outside into the street.

"Her fiancé probably wouldn't be too happy about that. He's a cop."

"Yeah, and he has a huge gun!" Temperance yelled merrily, before throwing up on the pavement.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Are you nervous?" Angela asked from somewhere behind Temperance as she helped her into her dress. She hadn't wanted anything particularly fancy, but Angela had persuaded her to go for one that was, to her, exactly like every dress that she had ever seen in a magazine. She liked it, even though she thought it was a bit too much.

"No, why would I be nervous?"

"Sweetie, in about twenty minutes you're getting married! I was terrified when Jack and I got married, so you know it's only natural if you are, too. It's a good kind of nervous, everyone gets it, so don't be embarrassed or..."

"I'm not nervous."

"Oh. OK then."

"I'm kind of excited, though."

"Good! This is going to be one of the best days of your life, I promise you. Just enjoy yourself."

"Have you got your old, new, borrowed, and blue somethings?"

"I'm wearing your necklace, and the blue garter. The dress is new. I don't have anything old."

"Well, I'm sure we can find something, we _are_ in a church."

"Oh wait, I've got something." She went over to her bag containing the clothes she had worn on the way to the church, and pulled out a small plastic bag with a very old-looking bone inside. "Here, this will do."

"Is that an evidence bag? And a bone? Did you bring work to your own wedding?"

"I thought I might get bored." Temperance replied, shrugging it off as if it were the most normal thing in the world. But maybe she would have to just stick to doing what she normally did – observing the unfamiliar traditions of different cultures.

Meanwhile, Booth looked around the church as he waited for the ceremony to start: his buddies from the FBI; his parents; and standing right beside him in front of everyone was his best man, Mark, who was more like a brother to him than his real brother who was sitting next to his parents.

"Just relax, I'm sure she hasn't run out on you."

"I wasn't even thinking that...until now." Booth said, remembering how much persuading it took to even get her to agree to marry him, and how she had never _actually_ said that she would show up for the wedding. And although Angela was going to be with her, it was not unlike Temperance to forget appointments sometimes.

"I was kidding. She's probably just making sure the kids look smart."

"Yeah, I know. But what if...?"

"She'll be here."

"You remembered your speech, right?"

"Got it right here." he replied, patting his breast pocket.

"And there are no Spring Break anecdotes? No mention of that stuff in Thailand?"

"No, I kept it clean. Short and sweet."

"Good."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Ange, what's going on? Where are we going?"

"Consider this your wedding present, sweetie. Now close your eyes..." Angela said to Temperance and Booth with a mischievous grin, leading them into the darkened ballroom of the Capital Hilton in D.C. They did as they were told, and after a few seconds heard loud rock music starting up, followed by applause by their guests.

"Now open them!" Angela said (or tried to) over the music.

"A Foreigner tribute band!" Booth yelled in excitement.

"You have no idea how difficult is was to find these guys. Thank God my dad's got some great connections!"

And so, the newly married couple danced to the sounds of 'Hot Blooded' well into the small hours of the morning, much to the annoyance of the other hotel patrons.


	7. Seventh Heaven

A/N Howdy! I know it's been a really really long time since I updated this. SORRY! There really isn't an excuse, to be honest. I just wasn't sure what to write about. So what we have is fluff and such. R and R please! And I apologise for the wait, once again. I have already started the next one though so there hopefully won't be such a long gap fingers crossed. [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Seeley rolled over on his side of the bed to face his wife. The sound of the waves crashing against the cliff outside their hotel room had woken him, but as he looked over at her he could see she was already awake. "Good morning," she said, and leaned over to kiss him.

"Good morning, Mrs Booth."

"I can't believe you haven't got over saying that yet. We've been married for a year."

"But we're only just having a honeymoon, so I'm making the most of it. Are you having a good time?"

"No... I'm having a_ great_ time." Temperance smiled and stretched, kicking off the duvet. "So what's the plan for today?"

"We have dinner reservations at seven, but the rest is up to you."

"After the massages yesterday, which were amazing by the way, I'm ready for something a little more adventurous."

"That doesn't mean shopping does it?"

"Don't be ridiculous, you know I buy my souvenirs at the airport. I was thinking we could go hiking or something."

"So I can pretend I know stuff about nature and survival techniques, and you can prove that I really don't know anything?"

"Yeah."

"OK, we can go hiking."

Temperance laughed and went to start getting ready. As she passed by the bedside cabinet, she caught sight of a picture Astrid has made for them before they left. She felt her heart sink a little when she thought about how far apart she was from her children – they were being well looked after by Jack and Angela, but she really missed them. And once they had got back from their honeymoon, she would be leaving again soon after to go to New York. Now that Bea and Brandon were in school at Astrid was at preschool in the mornings, she felt like she wasn't spending much time with them. And here were she and Seeley on their honeymoon in San Diego, spending even less time with the kids.

"They're fine, Temperance." he said, reading her expression. Somehow hearing it from him reassured her.

* * *

"Oh, Jimmy, we hardly knew yea..."

The whole Booth family was stood in the back yard, crowded around a deep hole in the ground under the willow tree. Brandon and Bea stood next to each other, both visibly upset, saying goodbye to Jimmy. Their father was beside them ready to lower a box, containing Jimmy the much-loved family pet, into the hole. Astrid had been quite eager to clamber into it herself, so she was being held a safe distance away in Temperance's arms.

Jimmy had died on Wednesday, a month after Temperance and Seeley got back from the honeymoon, and the day before Temperance came back from her trip to New York to do some promotion for her latest book. Seeley had been looking after the kids while their mother was gone, and they had thought that the dog had run away. Then he found Jimmy near the park when he went to look for him.

An hour after the burial, life had pretty much got back to normal. The twins were doing homework in the dining room, Seeley was in the bedroom getting ready for work, and Temperance was making dinner.

"What's cookin' good lookin'?" her husband asked, coming into the kitchen to return the shoe polish to its home in the cabinet under the sink.

"Mac and Cheese."

"Huh. Nutritious."

"Well, I know it isn't exactly the high quality Chinese cuisine you've been living off for the past week, but it will do for the kids."

"They like Chinese food."

"It's not healthy. All that salt and MSG."

"I made sure they ran around outside afterwards, I promise. Right, I'm outta here."

"Be safe." she reminded him, as she did every time he left the house for work, and kissed him softly.

"I always do." He went to put his head round the dining room doorway, "See you in the morning, kids. Take care of your Ma."

"Bye daddy!" Brandon and Bea said in unison (they had learnt from a very early age that exploiting the fact that they were twins would bring them a lot of attention, because it was very cute to witness). Astrid waved from where she was seated on her booster seat at the table, watching her older brother and sister intently.

* * *

After dropping off the twins at school and taking Astrid to preschool, Temperance walked into the coffee shop and looked around for Angela, breathing in the scent that filled the air. She spotted her friend at a table by the window, engrossed in a newspaper. She looked up, and the two hugged before sitting down.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, thanks."

"You still look a bit pale."

"Well thanks, Sweetie."

"Do you think you'll be back at work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, probably. I went to the doctor yesterday, and I found out what was wrong."

"It's not anything serious is it? Oh my God, Ange, whatever it is I'm here for you." She suddenly panicked, all kinds of things flashing through her mind. Angela was really her rock, and she wasn't sure what she would do without her.

"Calm down! It's serious, but good serious. I'm pregnant!"

"Congratulations!" Temperance cried, getting up to hug Angela again. "I'm really happy for you!"

"I'm so excited – you should have seen Jack when I told him, I thought he was going to burst!"

"You're going to be great parents. You coped with my three, so I'm sure you'll manage with one."

"They're great kids. There was something that I wanted to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"It's way too soon to be thinking about this, I know, but I want you to be my baby's Godmother."

"Oh, Ange! I'd be honoured."


	8. Eight O'Clock, On the Dot

A/N Howdy! Two chapters in one week, you should be very happy right now! I'm not sure how I managed to write this one so quickly, but someone gave me the idea (thank you!) and I decided to go with it because I thought it was awesome. I'll leave you a slight explantion about my feelings on this chapter at the end, because there's something that needs clarifying. Oh, and I haven't really mentioned Angela's baby in this - it was going to be a main part of this chapter, but it was getting too long so it will be in the next one. Which is going to be a major one. You have been warned! Oh, one more thing...I'm not sure when this major chapter will be up, because it's that time of year again where my focus should really be on exams. If I get chance I'm going to try to write the bulk of it at the weekend, but when you guys will get to read it is anyone's guess. Soon, hopefully! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Temperance rushed from the kitchen into the hallway to answer the phone. She almost tripped over the laundry basket that she had purposely left in the middle of the dining room to remind her to iron them, and she fought back a curse word as she stumbled forward. When she finally got to the phone, she hoped whoever it was wasn't about to hang up – what a wasted journey it would have been if they did.

"Hello?"

"_Temperance?"_

"Who's this?" She had been expecting the voice on the other end to be Angela. Since she had her baby, a little girl called Daisy with a full head of thick black curls, she would call every other day if she had a problem or needed advice. But this wasn't Angela. Part of her knew exactly who it was. The other part of her knew too, but didn't want to face up to it.

"_It's Sully."_

"Oh... Hi." It sounded feeble. It _was _feeble. But what was she meant to say? She wasn't happy to hear from him, she hadn't missed him, and she didn't want to revisit that part of her life. He had broken her heart, as much as she hated to admit it, and now he had called and stirred up all of those emotions.

"_Is now a good time?"_

"Sure." No. No, it wasn't. And not just because she didn't want to talk to him. She had a lot to do, and no one to help her out: she was just about to put Astrid in the bath, the twins needed help with their homework, and she was trying to finish the work that she hadn't quite had time to finish during the day. In summation, it really wasn't a good time.

"_How've you been?"_

"Great. You?" Small talk. Perfect.

"_Not too shabby."_

She could tell he was probably smiling into the receiver. She began to wonder how he had got her number – they had moved since the last time she spoke to him. It suddenly hit her that he must know she was married now. Married to his friend. And she began to feel guilty. "Why did you ring, Sully?"

"_I'm in D.C., staying with a buddy. So I thought I'd look you up. But I gotta tell you, you're not an easy woman to find."_

"Well that wasn't my intention..."

"_Your number isn't listed, I tried ringing the Jeffersonian Institute to get your number but they thought I might be a criminal or something. And it's not like I can tell them that I'm with the FBI any more, because I'm not. So I tried ringing your agent and she thought I was a stalker. I know you had some issues with that."_

"They weren't stalkers. They were just a little too keen, that's all. How _did_ you get my number?"

"_I ran into your husband. He thought I was trying to hook up with you again."_

"You aren't though, are you?" She wondered why Seeley had given him their number – she thought he wouldn't be very happy about Sully being around again, but he obviously trusted her. It was a bit weird, though.

"_No, don't worry. Although you sound a little disappointed..."_

"I'm not. I'm very happy, thank you very much."

"_I don't doubt that, Temperance. Just so long as he's treating you right."_

"He is." Astrid ran into the room, wondering where her mother had got to, and tugged on the hem of her shirt to try and speed her along a little. "Just a second," Temperance said to her daughter, covering the phone with her hand.

"_Who was that?"_

"My daughter."

"_Booth didn't tell me you had a kid."_

"We have three. Two girls and a boy. And Parker on the weekends."

"_Wow. Well, if you're busy I'll let you get on. But I'd like to see you sometime soon, if that's OK."_

"I don't think that would be a good idea, Sully. I'm sorry."

"_That's OK, I understand. Call me if you change your mind."_ He hung up, and she did the same. Then she picked up Astrid and went to run her a bath.

* * *

"Guess who I ran into last night." Booth said when he came home from work the next morning.

"The Pope?"

"Don't start on the Pope again, he's never done anything to you."

"He's never done anything for anyone. He holds an outdated position that is pretty much obsolete in modern society."

"I'm too tired to explain to you all the things that are wrong with what you just said. But no, I didn't run into the Pope. I ran into Sully."

"Really? How nice." She tried to sound nonchalant, pretending she hadn't already spoken to him, and carried on typing up some notes at the computer.

"He already called, didn't he?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"I was busy, we didn't really talk."

"So he called and then hung up again?"

"No." She sighed, feeling a fight brewing. "Do you want a transcript of the conversation?"

"I'm just asking what you two talked about, that's all."

"He asked how I was, I asked how he was. I told him about the children, because you seemed to forget about that minor detail, and then he asked if we could meet up. I said no, just in case you were wondering."

"He asked if he could go on a date with you? Even though he knows you're married?"

"Not a date! What's wrong with you? If you're so jealous why did you give him our number?"

He began to say something, but stopped himself and started again, realising that he couldn't raise his voice while the children were still asleep. "I'm sorry. I just don't like the idea of him hitting on my wife, is that so bad?"

"You don't have anything to worry about. I'm not going to see him."

"Good."

"What?"

"I said good – I don't want you seeing him."

"You can't tell me who I can and can't see!"

"But you said you weren't going to see him!"

"Don't you trust me? If I _was_ going to see him, nothing would happen, because I love _you_!"

"Look, just forget I ever said anything, alright? I'm going to bed."

* * *

About an hour after Seeley had gone to bed, Temperance picked up the phone and got the number of the last caller. The she went out into the garden with the cordless phone clutched in one hand, and Sully's friend's number in the other. She looked up at her bedroom window momentarily, feeling both angry and guilty, and sat down on the bench on the patio. It took her a minute to decide what to do – call him and spite her husband for trying to control her, or rip up the number and go back inside, letting Seeley know that if he made a fuss about something she wanted to do, then she wouldn't do it. Once she had made her decision, she dialled the number.

"_Hello?"_

"Hi, is Sully there please?"

"_Uh, yeah, just a second."_

She heard the friend put the phone down on a surface. If she was going to hang up, now would be the time to do it. She held the phone away from her ear and her finger hovered over the 'end call' button. But then she heard Sully's far away voice.

"_Hello?"_

"Sully? It's Temperance."

"_Hi! I didn't think I'd hear from you again. I'm glad you called."_

"Do you still want to see me?"

"_Of course. Is your husband OK with it?"_

"It's nothing to do with him."

"_I'll take that as a no, then." _He laughed, and her feelings of guilt subsided a little. They had a history, but that didn't mean they couldn't be friends. Seeley was still friends with him, so why couldn't she be? But then again, Seeley had probably never slept with him. _"When's a good time?"_

"Evening, probably. I can get a babysitter."

"_When the Old Man's not around, right?"_

"When someone tells me not to do something, then I have to find a way to do it. But like I said, it's nothing to do with him. How does eight o'clock sound?"

"_Eight o'clock, on the dot. Sounds good."_

They arranged where to meet, and they said their goodbyes. Temperance went back into the house, closing the back-door softly behind her. Then she made sure the children were ready, and took them to school.

* * *

Temperance sat in her car in the small parking area outside the diner, where she had arranged to meet Sully. It was five to eight, and she didn't want to seem to eager. Her original plan was to leave the house at half past seven, and make the twenty minute journey. But it was just her luck that today, unlike every other day, there was no traffic, so instead of being ten minutes late like she had planned she was five minutes early. If she was going to back out, now would be the time to do it – she could call him later and tell him one of the kids was sick, or it was too late notice to get a babysitter. But before she could start the ignition again and drive home, she spotted him getting out of his car and walking towards hers. 'Crap', she thought, unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door.

"Good evening." He stopped and just stood there looking at her, making her feel very self-conscious.

"Did I forget my pants or something?"

"No I just... I mean you... You look different, that's all."

"I am different. Well, I'm still the same person obviously, but my life is different."

He led her inside, and they found an empty table. As they sat down, she realised her knew all about her husband and her kids, but she didn't know anything about how his life had turned out. She hadn't spoken to him in a long time.

"Did you really go to the Caribbean?"

"For all of three months. I got kind of bored of just sitting around."

"You never could stick with one thing."

"I met a couple of guys in a bar who worked in Austria at a ski resort and they invited me over there for the Easter season. I ended up teaching a beginners snowboarding course, but in the summer the resort closed and I came back home."

"Then what?"

"Then my dad died and I spent the next month or so consoling my mother."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"He'd been sick for quite a while. But with the money he left me, I opened my own restaurant."

"Congratulations – you always wanted to do that, and you finally did!"

"And I managed to stick with it! 'Sam's Sandwiches and Snacks' has been open for five years this August. I named it after my dad."

"That's sweet. So is business booming?"

"Yeah, we've been really busy. I thought I could manage on my own with my mom helping me out on the weekends, but I ending up having to employ two college kids part-time and a young woman to wait tables and stuff. So we're doing really well."

"Good."

"And what about you, how's your job?"

"I'm only working part-time now, which hasn't really made a difference – it's the same amount of work but half the time to do it in. And I released another book last spring."

"I saw you on TV."

"Oh God!" Temperance laughed. She had only done one TV appearance during her promotional tour, and on that particular day she felt really ill. To make matters worse, her microphone didn't work and the host of the show got the name of her book wrong. "I must have looked awful!"

"The host looked worse when she realised she'd misread the Autocue and you corrected her. I thought her head was going to explode."

"I'd just got back from my honeymoon and then I had to get on another plane to go to New York. I was missing my kids and all I wanted to do was go home and see them."

"How old are they?"

"Brandon and Bea, the twins, are eight years old, and Astrid is four. She started school this year, and it's a struggle to drag her away from her friends at the end of the day. Have you settled down with anyone?" She had wanted to ask him that first, but felt it would be a little rude to just come out and say it. And she didn't want to sound like she _cared_ if he was with anyone.

"No. I haven't really had the time. I've been sowing the wild oats, but there hasn't been anyone serious."

"Oh." That wasn't really what she wanted to hear. If he had told her he was happy with someone, then she could be happy for him. They would then be on an almost-level playing field, and she wouldn't keep thinking about how her life would have turned out if she had gone with him.

* * *

Temperance walked into her quiet house, shut the door behind her, and dropped her car keys in the bowl on the table. She went into the living room, where Laura the teenage babysitter was sat on the sofa watching the TV. She called her a cab and paid her, then went upstairs to tuck in the children. As she reached the top of the stairs, she realised if she had gone away with Sully, then she wouldn't have Bea, Brandon and Astrid. It sounded like a corny cliché that she would normally never use, but they were the best things that ever happened to her. And even though they fought sometimes, she and Seeley loved each other and were happy together. She felt safe with him, but with Sully she was never sure what was going to happen next. Predictability could sometimes be boring, but at least she could be certain that he was always going to be there – she learnt the hard way that Sully w_asn't _always going to be there. She had gone to see him tonight out of defiance, something that she rarely got to do lately, and it made her realise that she really was happy how she was. Sometimes it was hard, but more often than not married life was great. Thinking back, she was amazed at how reluctant she had been to actually get married in the first place. But now that she was somebody's wife, she couldn't imagine going back to the way she used to be – alone, isolated, living for her work. She never thought she would get married or have children, because she couldn't bear the thought sharing her personal space with anyone else. Now she couldn't bear the thought of being without her family.


	9. Nine Lives

A/N Hey! Told you I wasn't sure when I would post this, I was having trouble getting this chapter right. It ends a bit abpruptly, but in repentance I have started the next chapter. So stay tuned, it may be up before you expect it. Hopefully. [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Temperance pulled into the driveway of Angela and Jack's home, the biggest house on the street, got out of her car, and jogged up to the front door, very aware of the drops of water falling on her head. Almost as soon as she had rang the doorbell, the big oak door opened and she was greeted by her friend.

"Sorry I'm late, Ange, this rain doesn't make for easy driving."

"That's OK, I'd much rather have you here alive than on time."

They went through to Angela's living room, where Daisy was playing on the rug. The one year old looked up when they came through the door, and she beamed up at her godmother, glad to see a new potential playmate. Temperance sat down cross-legged on the floor next to her, and helped the little girl build a tower with her blocks while chatting to her mother. They talked about what Astrid and the twins were like at Daisy's age, what developmental milestones she would soon be reaching, and they discussed Angela and Jack's plan for more children.

"Jack wants four; two boys and two girls. But I'd be happy with whatever we were blessed with, so long as they're healthy and happy. Do you have plans for any more?"

"No! I think we have enough. It's exhausting having them all so close together in ages."

"But it gets easier as they get older right?"

"Of course. You definitely have a stronger maternal instinct than I do, you'll cope better."

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing work, husbands, and then talking about children some more. It was soon time for her to leave to finish running some errands, so two women said their goodbyes, and Temperance got in her car to drive home.

* * *

By the time five-thirty rolled around, and Temperance still wasn't home, Booth began to worry that he wasn't going to make it into work on time. He had picked up Bea, Brandon and Astrid from school, made their dinner, and helped them with their homework, but this was the point in the evening when he would usually hand them over to her. But she wasn't there yet. He had tried calling her cell phone numerous times, but it just rang until it went to voice-mail. He called Angela to see if she was still at her house, and when she informed him that his wife wasn't with her and had left quite a while earlier, he no longer worried about being late for work.

He went into Special Agent mode, calling around local hospitals to see if she had been admitted. She was never late for anything. More often than not, she was always at least ten minutes early for everything. For her not to come home and not to call to say she was going to be late, something must have happened to her.

Astrid came in from the living room and, seeing her father pacing up and down the length of the kitchen, went up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. Her way of making people feel better was to give them a hug, and usually it worked, but right now it made him feel even worse. He put the phone down on the counter and picked his daughter up, holding her close to him. Thousands of scenarios were flashing through his mind all at once, each more horrible than the last. Right now all he could think about was that his children were going to grow up without a mother, and that he was going to be a widower. How was he going to cope?

He stopped – he was getting way ahead of himself. None of the hospitals he had called so far had heard of her. All he had to do was stay calm, and think about things rationally. She was just late home, that was all. She was a responsible woman, but sometimes she forgot to call if she wasn't going to be home on time. Her cell phone probably ran out of battery. It had been raining heavily all afternoon and that made people more cautious, causing them to drive slower. Traffic was probably bad. But he still had that niggling feeling in the back of his mind. He had been trained to access the situation and not jump to conclusions, but when it was a situation involving his wife all of that training went out the window. He couldn't remember a situation where he had been this terrified.

* * *

She opened her eyes, blinking a few times to focus, and looked around. She couldn't move her head, but she hadn't figured out why yet. She hadn't figured out where she was yet, either, but that was what she was looking around for. It was too dark for her to make any thing out, and she sighed in frustration. Well, it would have been a sigh, but it came out more like a raspy moan. She tried to swallow but couldn't quite manage it, and attempted to make another sound, but what came out was even worse and it made her throat ache.

She tried wiggling her toes, and was overwhelmed with relief when she felt them brush against each other. So she wasn't paralysed like she thought she may have been, which was good, but she still didn't have a clue where she was, which was bad. She wasn't one to guess or to theorise, but in this situation she thought it may be best to do so. It was dark, but there was a dusky orange light coming from somewhere that she couldn't see in her peripheral vision, illuminating items in the vicinity – the ceiling above her, a window. Everything else was either out of her line of sight, or somewhere in the direction of her feet. She was flat on her back, but because she couldn't move her head she couldn't see over her chest. She wiggled her toes again, but couldn't see them moving. Giving up, she shut her eyes again.

She wasn't sure how long she had been lying there when she heard the door open, and footsteps coming closer to her.

"Temperance? Can you hear me?"

She opened her eyes and tried to speak again, but still no distinguishable sound came out.

"Ssh, don't try and talk. Just lay still."

The woman standing over her spoke in a slow, calm voice. In the dull light she could see her kindly face, lines around her eyes displaying years of both joy and sorrow. She sort of reminded Temperance of the female lead in 'Misery', a film that Seeley had made her watch on one of his very few nights off after they had put the kids to bed. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that this woman had complete control over her – she couldn't move her head, which would suggest she had suffered some kind of spinal injury (although she couldn't remember how she would have got one), and for all she knew she wasn't even in a real hospital. She still had no clue where she was. Deciding that what was going through her head was probably a little crazy, she put it down to this woman pumping her full of drugs, and tried to think through the situation properly.

"You were in an accident, Temperance. Do you remember what happened?"

She gave a weak reply, curious as to why this woman had told her not to talk but continued asking questions anyway. She couldn't remember how 'Misery' ended, but it probably involved some kind of violent showdown. Not exactly what she was capable of right now.

"Your car skidded off the road in the rain. We still aren't sure how much damage has been done to your neck, so just lie still."

She helped Temperance to take a drink of water, and her throat immediately felt better, albeit only slightly. "Where am I?" she managed to croak.

"Saint Henry's Hospital. Your husband is outside, shall I send him in?"

Before she had even had time to nod, the nurse had whisked out of the room into the hallway, the door still held ajar by her foot, and barked 'Mr Brennan' out into the silence. She heard the well-rehearsed (if a little bitter sounding) 'she kept her maiden name' speech in return, and heard his footsteps come into the room. She found herself thinking about how odd it was that she could distinguish the footsteps of people she knew – she could always tell which one of her colleagues was coming towards her office to ask her advice on something. It served an important function for survival, something which she appreciated. Unable to turn her head still, out of the corner of her eye she saw him sit down in the chair next to the bed in which she was lying. He let out a long, heavy sigh, and she felt him grip her hand. Leaning over her so she could see his face, he smiled weakly and began to speak.

"Hey, are you OK?" Stupid question." He shook his head, searching for words. "I'm so glad you're still here."

"Me too."

"The doctor said he wasn't sure if you'd damaged your spine."

She rolled her eyes, a small movement that had to convey so much. "I'm fine."

He gave her a stern look. Normally he would have humoured her if she had done something trivial like cut her finger and told him that she was fine, but she knew from his face that he was seriously worried. "I know you're an expert on bones, but maybe you should wait for a second opinion, just this once?"

"Well it's not like I can go anywhere."

"Glad to see you've kept your sense of humour."


	10. Ten Again

A/N Yeah, I know I only posted the last chapter yesterday, but what can I say, I find fluff way easier to write than suspenseful stuff. So here we go, nothing really happens but... I don't have a clue what to write for the next one. I have really run out of steam on this story and if I'm honest I can't wait til I finish it. Once again, I was too ambituous. R and R please lovely people! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

A year later, Temperance was back on her feet with no lasting damage, and her back rarely gave her any trouble now. If she believed in miracles, she would have described the experience of walking away from a car crash with minor injuries as one. Her husband certainly seemed to want to go to church more often afterwards – sometimes he couldn't accept that things just happened, and a lack of empirical evidence didn't mean it was the handiwork of 'God'. For the first few months after the accident, it hurt her to stand up for long periods of time and she would sometimes get random shooting pains, but now the only thing she couldn't do was heavy lifting. The children were too big to be lifted now and she wasn't dealing with boxes of evidence on a daily basis any more, anyway, so that aspect of it was no problem.

The accident reminded her that life was too short, and that she had to make the most of it while she still could, but trouble with her back reminded her daily that she wasn't getting any younger. She was forty-three now, not exactly ancient, but occasionally things would happen that made her feel like an old woman. When Temperance thought back to ten years ago, before she was a wife, before she was a mother, before she was even pregnant, all she could think about was how different her life was. She had very little responsibility except for at work, which was all she really lived for. Now, she was as good as retired from the Jeffersonian and was concentrating purely on her writing. If she had been asked back then where she saw herself in ten years, she would have probably said "exactly where I am now". Children had never been part of the plan, neither had marriage. Sometimes she still felt like a teenager, but more often than not she was brought back to reality with a bump when she remembered that Bea and Brandon were ten years old and Astrid, who was still seen as the baby of the family, was almost six. And she was stepmother to a teenager.

Those children were probably the main cause of most of her wrinkles. Every time one of them fell over or got sick, she was sure she gained another fine line, that would eventually grow into a deep crevice on her face. She tried to turn it into something positive, to remind herself that those laughter lines around her eyes were the total of a lifetime's worth of happy experiences, which usually worked and eased her mind. But sometimes she just felt plain old, and no amount of poetic convincing would make her feel otherwise.

As part of her routine, when she woke up in the morning and had a shower, she would blow dry her hair, all the while searching for new grey hairs. Bea had found the first one a few years ago, and pointed it out in the characteristically ruthless way that children did, but since then they were beginning to be a more regular occurrence. Regular dyeing could only do so much for the outside, but inside she felt like she was inching towards old age.

And it didn't help much that Seeley still had a full head of dark hair, with no sign of any grey strands. She sometimes found herself getting jealous of her husband's good genes – his own father was nearing his mid-seventies and still had dark brown locks.

But although he didn't look the part, that wasn't to say that Seeley didn't feel old. He did, but he wouldn't let anyone know about it. He hadn't quite hit the mid-life crisis 'buy a Porsche' stage yet, but he had the horrible feeling that it wouldn't be long. If he actually got to that stage at all – one of the problems that came with his perpetually ageing self was that he wasn't as active as he used to be, and couldn't run as fast as he could previously. He was just waiting for the day when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, chasing some criminal who was half his age. A desk job would be his worst nightmare, but he knew he couldn't go on out in the field much longer. For the sake of his family, he hoped he would still be around for a while. He still had plenty of fight left in him yet.

* * *

"Where are we going?"

"Would you be quiet, I don't want to get caught."

"By who, there's no one here?"

"I'm not taking any chances. I feel like an idiot."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him through a gap in the fence. It was basically a closed off vacant lot now, but a single street light illuminated the swings and the slide still that stood, instantly transporting her back to the long summer evenings she would spend here playing and lying on the grass, looking up at the sky. The grass licked at their knees now as they straightened up and walked further into the almost jungle atmosphere.

"I used to come here when I was a kid. My dad would bring my brother and I if we had been good during the week."

"So you didn't come very often, then?"

"Shut up. I was always very well behaved, Russ just didn't observe boundaries."

"How did you know it was still here?"

"I have to drive past here when I go to the hair salon. I was curious, so I came back when it got dark and looked through the fence." She jogged over to the rickety-looking slide and started to climb the ladder to the top.

"Woah! What are you doing, do you know how long it's been since this place had any maintenance work done on it?"

"I'm a big girl, dear, I'll be fine."

"I don't want any more hospital visits for a while, OK? Be careful." He went to stand by her, ready to catch her if she fell. She just laughed at him, as fearless as ever, and sat at the top ready to slide down. Pushing herself down the slide, she felt the air rush past her face and through her hair as her body glided down the cool metal. It was exhilarating, even if it only lasted for a few seconds, and for that short moment she felt like she was ten years old again. She gestured to him to do the same, and he reluctantly climbed the ladder just as she had done.

"I don't think it will hold my weight, you know."

"Are you scared?"

"Scared? Of a slide? Don't be ridiculous." And to show her just how 'scared' he was, he climbed up and went down head first, on his stomach. "Happy now?"

"Oh, my strong, brave husband..." she said, the sarcasm evident, as she helped him to his feet. He brushed the dirt from his jeans and the front of his shirt, watching Temperance as she went over to the swings and sat down on one of them. "Push me?"

He did as she asked, and she laughed as he pushed her higher and higher until she could see over the fence. He got on one of the swings next to her and they moved through the air together for a little while in silence, taking advantage of the fact that there was no one there wanting something from them for a change.


	11. Eleventh Hour

A/N Howdy hey readers! I'm aiming to have this story finished in eight weeks time, so for those of you keeping score that's seven more chapters I have to write... I really hope I manage it! I started the next chapter this morning, but I have no ideas for chapters 13 and 15. If you have any ideas you want to throw my way, feel free, if not then review please! Thanks for reading. Oh and italics are flashblack type things, in case that isn't clear, and I'll just remind anyone who needs it that this is a work of FICTION so don't get on my case telling me this hasn't happened - I know! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

They had never thought of three days as being a long time before. Seventy-two hours isn't all that long when you are kept busy – children to look after, work to do, people to see like on a normal day – but the past three days were anything but normal for Temperance, Angela, and Jack. The weather was strangely cool for the middle of August, the Jeffersonian was closed for a week after a pipe in the basement burst, and Booth had taken Bea, Brandon, Astrid and Daisy to the fire house festival. However, most of those things had past the three of them by almost completely unnoticed...

* * *

_When they thought back to their last conversation with Doctor Zack Addy, what all three remembered the most was how excited he had sounded at the prospect of his latest research project._

"_Six months on Mindanao, can you believe it? It will be like my own private island vacation! And what makes it even better is that I'll get to work with the native Philippine tribes!" His voice was raised by at least an octave as he told them about it, and his eyes were lit up like they had never seen before. It was rare that Zack showed such intense emotions, but when he did it was hard to the feel them, too._

_They hadn't seen him for a while, purely because they were all so busy, but when he called to say he would be leaving in August, it felt right that they should get together as a group again and give him a proper farewell, the way only those from the Jeffersonian knew how – with imported beer and Chinese food, as they sat around a table and swapped stories from their own travels. Then Zack went off explaining all about the Negrito and Austronesian peoples in his trademark passionate yet distanced way, "The tribes date back to 1500BC, so there should be a lot of artefacts that are still undiscovered." The group said their farewells and '_bon voyages'_, and they went back to their hectic lives._

That was the last time Temperance, Angela, and Jack had spoken to Zack, and they couldn't help but wish they had spent a little more time with him, or told him just how much they would miss him while he was gone. Yes, they had drifted apart over the last ten years, but they remained close.

He had been missing for three days now, after a typhoon had hit the small village on Mindanao where he was living and doing an excavation project. There had been no contact from him, no word to say he was safe. But the communications from the island were down after power lines were blown down, so maybe he was just having difficulty getting the message to those who were worried about him.

His parents were understandably terrified of losing their son, but were coping together as a family. When they called Jack, who passed the message on to his wife and his wife's best friend, they coped together as a family, too. They held out hope that their friend would be found alive, and every time the phone rang they would try to be positive that it was good news on the other end of the line. But inside, each of them grew less hopeful as every hour ticked by. Scenarios flashed through their minds, tempting them to entertain horrible possibilities. Temperance and Jack had a good idea of how much longer he could survive without food or fresh water, how long he would last with a serious injury. No matter how hard they tried to push those rational thoughts to one side, the scientist in each of them knew they couldn't rely on hope alone.

They had researched the Philippines on the internet, getting a better idea of what he was up against. It was the easternmost island, so would be one of the worst places hit, and the environment was mountainous, scattered with volcanoes. The area was most likely to be engulfed by tidal surges. They had found out that the house in which he had been living had been swept away by a mudslide, which caused Angela to weep for almost the whole day – she was pregnant with her and Jack's second child, and they were trying to keep her calm, but she wanted to know what was going on. They hated not knowing where he was, or if he was hurt.

* * *

Seeley came down from upstairs and put his arm around his wife. He had put the twins and Astrid to bed and then gone to get ready for work. "Maybe you should get some sleep."

"I'm not tired. And even if I was, I wouldn't be able to sleep – I can't stop thinking about Zack. What if something terrible has happened to him?"

"He's a smart guy, Temperance. If he was hurt then he's know what to do about it. He's probably so busy helping everybody else out that he hasn't realised we've been worried."

"I hope you're right."

"You just need to try and keep positive, OK? I have to go to work, call me if you hear anything. I love you."

"I love you, too." She went back to staring at the computer screen as she heard the front door shut and his car pull out of the driveway. She was trying to find an current death toll from the typhoon, but each website she looked on said something different. Giving up and going into the living room, she thought about what Seeley had said. Zack was sometimes off in his own world, and if he was helping injured people then he wouldn't remember to let anyone know that he was OK. And he wouldn't be able to let them know anyway, unless he travelled to a different part of the Philippines.

Angela and Jack were sat together on the sofa, half-asleep as they waited for the phone to ring. They all felt so helpless – they knew there was nothing they could do to help Zack or to find out where he was, but until they knew he was safe then they couldn't go about life like it was a normal day.

* * *

Two more days passed, and they still hadn't heard from Zack. His parents were beginning to give up hope, especially once they heard the latest estimate of people who had been killed – around twenty-five thousand people had been reported missing, and about a quarter of those were thought to be dead. Mindanao had been completely devastated by the typhoon, people had lost their homes and livelihoods, and the environment had been ravaged by the tidal surges and high winds. Jack and Angela had gone back home (they were in the middle of renovating the downstairs of their house and couldn't afford to not be there to oversee it), so Temperance was alone at home while the children were at school. She would still run to the phone every time it rang, but she couldn't always convince herself that it was good news, especially when almost a week had passed. The chances of him being found alive were dwindling rapidly, and they were all too aware of it. She decided to take a bath – it had always been a way for her to relax and forget about a hard day, and she really hoped it would work this time.

After five minutes soaking in the bathtub, she heard the phone ringing from the hallway. For a split second she thought about not answering it – it wouldn't be good news and she knew it, so right now she didn't want to deal with. She just wanted to stay in the warm water, where she felt safe and protected from the world. But after that split second she realised that this may actually be the call she was waiting for, and she would not be happy if she missed it. Getting out of the tub and wrapping a towel around herself, she rushed out of the bathroom to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

_"Temperance? It's Jack."_

"What is it? What's going on?"

_"They've found him..."_

"Oh my God." She immediately felt all of the emotions she had been holding in while trying to keep a cool exterior come rushing out. The tears rolled down her cheeks, and she had to lean against the wall to stop herself falling over. "They found his body?"

_"No, he's alive! He's OK!"_


	12. Twelfth Night

A/N Hey people. Right, I obviously didn't plan this very well because here we are pretty much in June and this chapter is about christmas. I'm not a fan of christmas myself, so this chapter is pretty short. I need help with the next chapter! The fact that it will be chapter thirteen sort of demands that something bad happens, but we did just have like two chapters that involved 'bad things'. But I'm all out of ideas. So for now I'm bypassing that chapter and working on finishing off the story, and will post the remaining six chapters when I can. Thanks for reading and reviewing! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Everyone knew that Temperance was not a big fan of Christmas. She just did not see the point in it, and her family and friends were very aware of that – they didn't try to change her views, they just accepted the way she felt and moved on. Her husband didn't share her negative feelings for the holiday, so in their house, Christmas was very much his territory. In the week running up to it, he spent all of his spare time with the children, picking a tree, decorating it and the house, and writing cards. Christmas was his favourite day of the year, but in a way he liked all of the preparation time more. He made the best Christmas food, and everyone knew it – to him, Thanksgiving was a trial run to be replicated and improved on in December.

The one thing he didn't enjoy about Christmas was the shopping. He was the type of man who didn't enjoy shopping at any other time of the year, but when he was forced to traipse around a noisy mall and battle it out with other customers for both gifts and personal space, it made him feel more than a little homicidal. Temperance felt the same way about shopping (and didn't believe in the exchanging of gifts), so he couldn't ask her to do it for him. However they always managed to come to a compromise – they would go together, split the list of things to buy and head off in different directions, meeting back where they started so they could go and get a well-deserved meal in the food court.

It was that time of year again, the week before Christmas, and Temperance and Seeley had just arrived at their local mall. They got out of their car somewhat hesitantly and set off for the entrance, huddled together against the snow driving down on them. "Every year we leave here laden down with bags and say 'never again'. But we always leave it until the last minute."

"We're busy people. Maybe it won't be as busy this year." he said with little conviction. He knew it would be just as busy as last year, and maybe even busier since the mall was extended in the summer. But they would just have to get on with it.

"I've always said that if we have to get the children gifts, then we should get them useful gifts. We could make a donation in their name to a charity, or perhaps sign them up for dance lessons or something like that?"

"I'm sure they'll enjoy opening _that _on Christmas morning!" The children hadn't asked for useful gifts – in fact, quite the opposite. Bea had asked for make-up, which she would not be getting, and clothes. Brandon had been talking non stop about a chemistry kit, much to the delight of his mother. And Astrid wanted a doll so that she could pretend it was a real baby.

"You know how I feel about commercialised holidays."

"Yes, dear. Lets just get on with it, shall we?"

* * *

When they were finally finished with the torturous ordeal, they went to the food court feeling exhausted, only to now be faced with queues that stretched out for what seemed like forever. They had managed to get almost all of the things on their lists, but they had noticed that some stores were seriously lacking in even the most basic things, like wrapping paper and Christmas cards. Temperance found going around the mall interesting on that particular occasion because she found it to be an intriguing anthropological study – almost a survival of the fittest type of scenario, although seeing these people fighting each other for something as trivial as a toy wasn't quite the type of stimulus that she was used to.

Temperance and Seeley sat down at one of the few available tables, careful not to trip over the bags of presents. They had managed to get some educational toys for Daisy and her new baby brother Max, as well as DVDs for Jack and a foot spa for Angela, and gifts for their own children and the rest of the family. As they ate their meals (chilli-dog with a mound of French fries for Seeley, and a chicken Caesar salad for Temperance), they exchanged memories of previous Christmases that they had spent together – from the time they were quarantined in the Jeffersonian, to the first one with the twins when it first hit home for them that they were an actual real-life family, to the Christmas they had spent with Russ and his new wife and daughters, and last Christmas when Zack eventually came home from the Philippines when his research was done (he had insisted on staying for longer to help with the relief effort that was going on).

Every year was similar in that they would wake up early, spend the morning together at home opening the presents from 'Santa' (although it was only for Astrid's benefit that they still kept up that tradition), then either have guests to their house or go to someone else's house for Christmas lunch. The day ended with everyone being so tired that they fell into bed at around nine o'clock, except for Temperance who stayed up and spent a little while thinking about her parents. Even for someone who doesn't actively celebrate it, Christmas was a time where the emphasis was very much on family, which just reminded her that for the longest time she didn't actually have one. She would sit at the dining room table thinking about all of the things she would say to her mother if she could, just little things. Sometimes Seeley would come downstairs in the middle of the night for a glass of water and find her still sitting there – he would tell her that he understood, but Christmas for him had only ever meant good things. She suddenly had a thought.

"You know all about my worst Christmas – tell me about yours."

"Why?"

"It's only fair," she shrugged, taking a sip of her soda.

"Alright. When I was sixteen my mom got sick so she couldn't cook, and my dad ended up burning the whole meal. It ruined the day for me."

"Is that all?"

"Well, there was one worse than that. I was thirteen years old and it was about seven o'clock on Christmas day. We were all about to go to church when a woman showed up on the doorstep and said she was my dad's girlfriend. My mom freaked out, my dad denied the whole thing, and me and my brother were just left standing in the hallway." He stopped to take a bite of his chilli-dog, as if he was describing a routine event in any young boy's life.

"But... but your parents are still together! Why didn't your mother walk out?"

"The woman was crazy, Temperance, she probably just picked out the first house she saw and thought, 'hey, my Christmas has been pretty crappy, so to make myself feel a little better I'm gonna go and ruin someone else's'. She did a good job of it."

"If that had happened to me, I would hate Christmas. But you love it. Why?"

"Believe it or not, it isn't the gift giving part that I enjoy. It's the celebration of Jesus' birth, and no amount of sighing or eye-rolling from you will change that for me. It's the Big Boy's birthday! I think people should be able to put their problems aside to spend the special day with their family. Don't you?"


	13. Unlucky For Some

A/N Howdy folks! As you are probably aware (since I mentioned it like ten times), I had some problems with this chapter. Hence the reason why it is neither long nor great. I made writer's block my bitch by writing about it, and throwing in something smutty. Et voilà, chapter thirteen. Reviews would be awesome, thanks. But no horrible ones! :D [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Temperance had a secret, one she hadn't divulged to anyone. Not her husband, not her children, not even Angela. She wasn't pregnant, she wasn't having an affair or harbouring a crush on anyone, she didn't have an addiction to drugs or alcohol or gambling, she hadn't murdered anyone. It wasn't the kind of secret that had to be kept under lock and key, in fact it was the sort of thing she normally told people about, but on this occasion she preferred that no one knew about it.

This terrible secret? She was writing a new book.

She hadn't been writing seriously for the past year, purely because she had other things to do – they finally got another dog to replace poor Jimmy, so her main job right now was puppy trainer – and had neither the inclination nor the time to write anything. Now that the summer vacation was over and the children were back at school, her fingers started to itch for her keyboard and she found her mind thinking about ideas for novels.

But for the longest time, she hadn't been able to get the ideas out to make them into something other than ideas. That was why she hadn't told anyone – while she had got quite a bit down, she didn't actually have that much to show for it yet. She had twelve chapters drafted and pretty much ready to show her publisher, but when it came to chapter thirteen... Well, she hadn't managed to even write a single word for it yet. In her head, she knew what proceeded that damned chapter, and what came afterwards, but she was just stuck for something to put in the middle. If she was a superstitious woman, she would have maybe anticipated that chapter thirteen would cause her some trouble. But to her, superstitions arose from people paying too much attention to coincidences, and coincidences were just that – there was no need to over-evaluate them. She tried being philosophical – there is no such thing as writer's block; it's just your mind shutting off a little when you've been overexerting it. If she relaxed for a while and took some time out from writing, then maybe her pool of ideas would eventually start to refill.

She had already tried her usual techniques for banishing writer's block – taking a bath, going for a run, writing something different to what she was used to, like poetry. She had even tried getting drunk and hoping that it summoned up some inspiration, but it just left her with a nasty headache. What usually worked for her seemed to just be making it ten times worse, so much so that she couldn't even write a shopping list. She tried meditation, she tried not thinking about writing at all and keeping herself so busy that she had no time to acknowledge the need to write. She had the ideas, but just couldn't transfer them from her mind onto the page. Nothing was working, and the more time that passed, the more frustrated she got. Maybe she needed to get out of the house, and away from the place that she normally associated with writing.

Seeley had tickets to see a Def Leppard tribute band at a bar about twenty miles away from where they lived. He had been trying to persuade her to go along with him for weeks, but it was something that she didn't really think she would enjoy. Her husband was known for his slightly questionable taste in music, after all. However, she was willing to put her uncertainties aside for the evening if it meant she wouldn't have to think about writing. She probably wouldn't even be able to hear herself think at all.

Unfortunately (or not, if you were Temperance), they didn't actually make it to the bar. She never thought she would see the day that she was a little bit glad that their car broke down, but if it meant not having to listen to awful music then she was okay with it. They had just got out of town when their SUV started making a weird noise, and slowed almost to a complete stop. As Seeley pulled over onto the side of the road, she took out her cellphone and called for help. They were all alone on a back road, in the dark, with no other traffic passing by them.

"It's going to be another hour before they get here," she said, hanging up. "And it's too far to walk to the bar."

"So what do we do now?"

"I'm sure we'll think of something." Temperance said with a wink as she climbed into the back-seat of the car to make good use of the time they had until the tow truck arrived.

* * *

That evening had turned out to be a genius cure for her writer's block – she had certainly stopped thinking about her lack of inspiration. Since then, every time she went into the her office, which had sort of become a makeshift kennel for Shiloh the puppy, she caught sight of her laptop that sat on the desk gathering dust. And she began irrationally thinking that it was calling out to her, wanting her to at least switch it on and write _something_, even if it wasn't something particularly good.

So that was what she did. It was meant to be a simple trip into the office to find a pen that actually worked, and that was how it had started out, but she found herself looking at the laptop again. She perched on the swivel chair, certain that she wouldn't stay for long, just long enough to get out all of those ideas that she had been storing up, then she would go back to doing the laundry.

But before she knew it, it was almost four o'clock. She had heard Bea, Astrid and Brandon come home from school, and had been just about to save what she had done when she got another brainwave and stayed where she was.

She stayed there for another two hours, until Astrid came up to find her. The light coming in from the window was growing dim and her eyes were beginning to hurt, but she hadn't got up to switch on the light because she was afraid she would lose her train of thought. In the time she had been up there, she had not only got all of her ideas out, but she had organised them into a semi-articulate narrative. And not only had she conquered the writer's block, but she had had a little fun in the process.

A/N Oh, and chapter fourteen should be up tomorrow because I wrote it last week, but obviously couldn't put it up before I'd done this one.


	14. February Fourteenth

A/N Once again, I'm late (or early depending on how you look at it) for another 'holiday'. First Christmas, now this. I hope you enjoy it because I actually really enjoyed writing this one, it's different to how I usually do things. You can possibly tell that I totally share Temperance's viewpoint on valentines day. And I think the reason I wrote so much about Brandon is because I'm like him, in a way – I guess there's a little Brandon in all of us (make of that statement what you will...). Anyway, reviews are immensely appreciated, as are all of you who are reading this. Not long until the end! Thanks for reading!

- - - - Temperance and Seeley - - - -

For her, the notion of Valentines day was utterly pointless – if you feel a certain way about a certain person, then you should make the effort to show them that every single day, not just on one day of the year that's designated by a greeting-card company. To her, the "holiday" embodied everything that she hated about corporate America and the commercialisation of one of the most basic human emotions. Much like her feelings about similar topics, she wasn't too afraid to let others know just what she thought about Valentines day.

Conversely, he thought the idea of a holiday devoted to the love one feels for another was actually quite nice – in today's society people were increasingly expected to hide their feelings and not display them publicly, which he felt was even more the case for men. He also liked the history behind Valentines day, and enjoyed hearing the story of Saint Valentine himself.

In their house, it wasn't an easy thing to celebrate. She would barely acknowledge it as a legitimate holiday, and he was stubborn enough to try to get her to unwittingly agree to doing something romantic. It was not the kind of holiday one could, or should, celebrate alone. Even Brandon and Bea had plans for Valentines day, but their own father couldn't get their mother to agree to go on a date with him. "If it will make you happy, we can go out tomorrow night. Just not tonight," she had told him. "Everyone will be out tonight."

"Because it's the day that you're meant to go out with the one you love. That's the point of Valentines day."

"I'm not going to win this one, am I?"

"Nope."

"Well how about we go somewhere distinctly unromantic? Like the aquarium or a museum."

"So long as I'm spending the day with my wife, then that's fine."

- - - - Angela and Jack - - - -

In the eleven years that they had been married, they had spent every Valentines day at the same restaurant down the street from their house, enjoying good wine and even better food. Valentines day was always extra special for them, not just because they were both hopeless romantics, but because it was the day that they had found out they were expecting Daisy. Since they had become parents, the day had become even more important to them – it was one of the rare opportunities that they had to spend an evening alone together. Thanks to their wonderful babysitter, Melinda (who incidentally never seemed to have plans for Valentines day), they actually managed to get out of the house for a few hours.

As they discussed their plans for that year, talk turned to two other people who were feeling the effects of Cupid's arrows.

"Bea and Brandon have dates for their school dance, how cute is that? Although I didn't get asked to dances when I was that age..."

"I didn't talk to girls when I was that age. I don't think I even knew any girls."

"Stop pretending that you never had any luck with the ladies, you got me didn't you?" She went over to help him with his tie, kissing him on the cheek as she did so.

"Yeah, and that was the only time I had any luck with a lady."

- - - - Bea - - - -

Ryan Mayer had actually asked her to the Valentines Day ball, and she couldn't quite believe it. She now had an ugly red mark on her arm from where she kept pinching herself, but she still hadn't woken from the dream. He had come and sat opposite her in the cafeteria, and just asked her. He seemed pretty calm about the whole thing, but she thought she might blush so much her head would explode. Her two best friends, May and Samantha, were understandably totally jealous that she had been asked by the hottest guy in school, but she had decided she wouldn't keep talking about it for their benefit – no one had asked them yet, and she didn't want to seem like she was bragging. It would be difficult though, because all she wanted to do was shout it from the rooftops – Ryan had asked her!

She knew most of the girls had a crush on him, and with good reason – he was athletic, and smart, and just all around gorgeous. He had dark hair that he was often sweeping out of his deep blue eyes, a great smile, and even his ears were cute. They would look great together at the ball.

If she had a relatively normal mother she would have gone straight home to tell her about it. She didn't have one of those, however, so instead she went up to her bedroom as soon as she got home and called her aunt Angela. She wasn't a real aunt, more like a cool big sister, even though she was the same age as her mom, but she and uncle Jack were still going out on dates together and even had plans for Valentines day. She was the one to go to for love advice. Brandon had even asked her something about a girl, although she wasn't sure who it was. Angela knew everything there was to know about boys and relationships, and she had been certain that her god-daughter would get asked to the ball by Ryan. And she was right!

- - - - Brandon - - - -

He had been nervous all week – he even got a sick feeling in his stomach thinking about it. He had tried asking his sister for advice, but she wasn't much help. He had asked his aunt Angela, who made him cringe by giving him the 'you're getting so grown up' speech. He had even tried asking his dad, and he was even less help. And his mom probably wouldn't even know what he was talking about.

Her name was Samantha, and she sometimes sat next to him during the science club meetings. He liked everything about her – her long blonde hair that hung well past her shoulders and halfway down her back, her bright green eyes that she kept hidden behind her glasses, and he especially liked her smile. When she was happy, everyone knew it, because she seemed to smile with her whole body. Her eyes would light up, her nose would wrinkle, and if you _really _made her happy she would clap her hands a little. Besides all of those superficial things, he just liked Samantha in general. She was an intellectual like him, so she wouldn't tease him. She was kind to everyone, even when they weren't particularly nice to her. And best of all, she liked him.

The reason he felt so sick right now, the reason his hands were shaking? He was about to ask Samantha to the Valentines Day ball at their school. He knew she wouldn't say yes, but like his dad always said, "If you don't try, then you'll never know." A ball to him sounded like the most dismal, dreary thing on the planet, but she was excited about it. He had seen her talking to her friends about dresses and shoes and hair and make-up, all things that he didn't know much about but had learned (from Bea) that girls were very fond of. He had been psyching himself up for the past five minutes, but when he saw her walking down the hallway towards him he lost what little nerve he had and nearly chickened out. But he managed to pull himself together for long enough to blurt out the barely coherent and very mumbled sentence of: "D'you wanna go to the dance with me?"

He was so proud that he had managed it without saying or doing something completely stupid that he was about to walk away and hide in the bathrooms without waiting for an answer.

And when she said yes, he felt like he had won the Superbowl and the Nobel Prize all on the same day. He knew he didn't exactly take after his dad when it came to talking to the ladies, but right now he felt like a total babe-magnet.


	15. Fifteen Minutes Of Fame

A/N Notice how these chapters keep getting shorter? Hopefully this won't continue - haven't started chapter 16 yet so that might be, but I can tell you for a fact that chapter 17 will be long and dare I say it, exciting. (Well perhaps that's not the right word, but we'll see.) You may be able to tell this didn't take me long to write, but I'm trying to take a more relaxed approach to my writing and not over think things. Let me know if it works! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

The Brennan-Booth household were all gathered in the living room of their home, intently focussed on the television. Temperance sat cross-legged on the floor, since all of the available seating space had been taken up by her husband and the four children, eating a slice of pizza. Normally when the whole family were together you couldn't hear yourself think, but tonight everyone had something else on their minds. A few pieces of popcorn were scattered on the floor from where Astrid had accidentally kicked over the bowl on her way to the bathroom, but no one was really paying attention to anything but the screen. Suddenly, Seeley spoke up into the silence.

"Oh, this is it! Sh, everyone listen!" Everyone did what he said and turned back to the television, more specifically the nine o'clock news. As a segment on the presidential campaign came to a close, they cut back to the blonde newsreader who shuffled the collection of papers in her hands and looked back to the camera. She straightened up a little and began reading the Autocue in front of her.

"_In local news, Seeley Booth, a special agent for the FBI, definitely earned the title 'special' yesterday afternoon when he heroically rescued a pregnant woman from her burning car. Melinda Denny crashed into the back of a truck on the interstate after the truck's brakes failed. Agent Booth was travelling behind Ms Denny and immediately pulled over to offer his assistance. She was taken to a local hospital – both she and her baby escaped unharmed. And now for the weather..."_

"Did you hear that? Heroically! And that picture they used of me was pretty good."

"We're all proud of you, honey," Temperance said, squeezing his arm, "Isn't that right, kids?"

"Just another excuse for Bea to brag to her friends," Brandon quipped, showing obvious disdain for his twin's love of popularity. Her joining the cheerleading squad had been the last straw for him, and now he took every opportunity he could to let her know that he thought she was becoming fickle and shallow.

"Just another excuse for Brandon to be a loser!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Hey!" When Seeley Booth shouted at his kids, they knew they'd better behave themselves. "You're ruining the moment for me. Be nice."

* * *

The next evening, after work, Seeley and Temperance went to their local bar. This wasn't a regular occurrence, but every once in a while they felt like getting away from the house and letting their hair down. It was the same place that she had had her bachelorette party, and whenever she saw the owner he would still give her a knowing smile – her husband still wasn't aware quite how drunk she and Angela had got. As he ordered their first drinks of the night and she leaned against the bar, her ears picked up snippets of a conversation between the two women standing beside her sipping cocktails.

"That _is _him! The guy on the news who saved that pregnant woman!"

"Oh my gosh, you're right!"

"He's hotter in the flesh, don't you think?"

"I might have to go set fire to my car just so he can rescue me!"

Temperance had never been one to get jealous, it just wasn't in her nature. She was well aware that her husband was aesthetically pleasing in a conventional sense, and she had never had a problem with other women (and sometimes men) admiring him. Let them look – he would never act on any of these women's advances. But now she found herself feeling quite insecure. He certainly seemed to be lapping up his new-found attention; once he had given the bartender their order, he had picked up on the conversation going on around him too. As soon as he had caught the women eyeing him suggestively, he instinctively sucked in his gut and puffed out his chest. She would have found it to be an interesting display of masculinity, but when it was her husband trying to attract other women she felt like hitting him. She found herself glaring at the brunette currently checking out him out until the bartender set a bottle of beer down in front of her.

"Lets go find a table." Seeley offered, steered her away and towards the back of the bar. "Away from those two charming young ladies."

"I thought you were enjoying the attention."

"Nah, they just want me because I'm famous now."

"You may be 'famous', but you still have a wife."

"Temperance, you know I'd never cheat on you. I made a vow before God, remember?"

"They're just words."

"Temperance, look at me," he said, taking her hands in his. "You're everything I've ever wanted, and more. Do you remember how much persuading I had to do to get you to agree to marrying me – why would I just throw that away?"

He had a point. It was because of his insistence that they were even married at all. She tried to think about how she would feel if he didn't trust her – he'd probably react in the same way she had. "I'm sorry I got jealous. I'm not sure what happened."

"That's OK. I'm just glad that you aren't bored of me yet."

"As if that could ever happen."


	16. Not So Sweet Sixteen

A/N Hey all! If you haven't heard 'Daughters' by John Mayer already, go listen to it – this chapter is heavily inspired by it (I have a not-so-secret crush on him, is that weird?). OK, so Booth really doesn't come out in a good light in this chapter, and he won't in the next one particularly either, but I think he would be quite a strict parent, don't you? Tell me if you think I've gone overboard on the 'strict dad' thing. This chapter started sounding like Eight Simple Rules by the end. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily. Oh, and I hope this chapter doesn't confuse you – it kind of goes back and forth in time a bit. Reviews would be awesome, thanks! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

- - - Bea - - - -

She should have been getting ready for her Sweet Sixteenth birthday party. All her friends expected her to have one, and when she told them that she wouldn't be they had practically demanded that she reconsider. Truth be told, it hadn't been her decision to make. But with parents like hers, she was almost glad that she wasn't having a party – her mother would say something stupid and anthropological, and father would be convinced that the whole thing would turn into a drunken orgy and so would hover all night waiting for someone to screw up.

So instead of getting ready for what would have been a not-so-great party, she was getting ready for what was sure to be a dull family dinner to celebrate her and Brandon turning sixteen. Putting the finishing touches to her outfit (dark jeans and a floaty cream silk blouse that Astrid had given her for her birthday), Bea sighed; sometimes she wished she just had _normal _parents.

In the middle of her struggle to untangle the cord of her curling iron, she heard her dad calling her from the bottom of the stairs and went down to find him.

"What are you so dressed up for? We're only going to Fratelli's and you know they're not big on dress codes."

"Mom said we can bring a friend, so I asked Ryan." She blushed a little, all of a sudden realising he might think she looked like she was trying too hard.

"Beatrice Christine Booth, what have I told you about that boy? He's trouble and I don't want you seeing him!"

"Dad! You can't tell me who I can and can't see!"

"I'm only saying 'no' because I care about you." He sighed as he watched her roll her eyes. "He's been in trouble with the police, and I don't want him dragging you into anything."

"That was a misunderstanding...." His expression told her that he wasn't buying it.

"You're not going out with him tonight and that's the last I'm saying on the subject. Go finish getting ready."

"Why won't you just give him a chance? Mom likes him!"

"No, she just finds him interesting. Something about women being attracted to bad guys."

"She said she thought he was nice."

"Well if she had her way, you and your brother would have a lot more freedom than you do. But I'm more practical. So I say go get ready – we're eating at eight." He gave her his patented 'that's the end of the conversation so you better not say anything else' look, and went upstairs to change. Bea stormed up the stairs behind him, muttering profanities at him after she was sure she heard his bedroom door close. Why did he have to be such a jackass all the time?

* * *

Bea couldn't sleep. She was full from her birthday dinner, but she also kept thinking about what a jerk her dad had been, and planning what she would say to him to let him know how she really felt. But what she found hardest to comprehend was the fact that if he had been a total bad-ass (like Aunt Angela always said he was when she was trying to endear him to the children) before he had got together with her mom, then why wouldn't he give Ryan a chance? All he had done was get busted smoking weed behind the mall, and that was hardly a crime. Her dad had done much worse – he had killed people, for crying out loud.

She rolled over in her bed, trying to get comfortable. Giving up on laying flat on her back, she turned onto her side and picked up her cell phone from her bedside cabinet. No new messages. Ryan could have at least replied to her text she had sent that told him (not entirely untruthfully) that he wouldn't be able to come to dinner because there wasn't enough room in the car. She sighed and decided that she would go get a glass of water and see if she would fall asleep then. Listening to make sure her parents weren't still awake, she heard a soft tapping on her bedroom window. It could have been the branches of the cherry tree being blown against the panes of glass, but then she saw a pale face illuminated against the dark night sky by the moonlight.

"Ryan?" Bea ran threw off the duvet, jumped out of her bed and ran over to the window to open it. "What are you doing here? If my dad catches you, he will_ kill_ you!"

"I don't care! I had to see you," he whispered, very aware that Mr Booth was not the kind of man that would turn a blind eye to catching a boy in his daughter's bedroom.

"Oh, Ryan!" She pulled him into the room, feeling the cool September air blow against her face and ruffle the hairs at the nape of her neck. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to wish you a happy birthday," he stated simply, kissing her on the cheek and then going to sit on the end of her bed. "But I forgot to bring your gift."

"That's OK." He kissed her again and put his arm around her shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Ryan broke the awkward silence between them.

"I had no idea you were a Clash fan." She looked at him confused, not sure what he was talking about. He pointed to the T-shirt she was wearing, ignoring the childish sheep print pyjama pants that accompanied it. "Nice jammies."

"Oh. It's my dad's."

"He has good taste." Ryan looked around the dark room, taking in the posters pinned on the pale pink walls featuring various skinny-looking Indie boys, a collection of stuffed animals, her bookshelf with a few well-thumbed copies of her mother's books, and the purple dress that she had worn to the valentine's ball hanging on the back of her door in a clear plastic dry cleaning bag. It was a typically girly room, but there were a few items that betrayed her slightly quirky side.

- - - - Brandon - - - -

Brandon pulled on a clean T-shirt and stood at the door, trying to hear what his dad and sister were arguing about. They were certainly being loud enough, but their words were a little muffled. Something about having a party, probably (not that he minded that they weren't having one. Actually he was kind of glad). Or something about Ryan. 'The Thing', as Brandon called him – he just couldn't understand why girls liked him. As he leant against the door still, he pondered it some more. Ryan was a complete dick at school, always picking on younger students and being rude to teachers. His face wasn't exactly attractive either, unless you're into guys who look like Sylvester Stallone.

He heard Bea's bedroom door slam, and then open again. 'Time for round two,' he thought. This time with their mom, who had obviously come to see what all the shouting and banging was about.

"Will you tell him, mom? Please?" He heard Bea's voice on the other side of the door, pleading with her mother to try and change their dad's mind.

"Sorry, kid, you know what he's like. But maybe Ryan can come over for dinner another time."

"Yeah, like that'll happen." Her bedroom door slammed shut again, and he heard his mom sighing.

He wasn't quite sure what happened next, but one minute he was minding his own business leaning against the door listening to their conversation, and the next he was flat on the hall carpet looking up at his mom, dressed in black slacks and a red shirt with a towel wrapped round her head.

"How many times do I need to explain the importance of privacy to you, Brandon?"

"It's research." He had learnt a few years ago that if you appealed to her scientist side, then she would give you an easier punishment. Like when he was seven, he had broken the kitchen window with a baseball and had gone into a long and rambling excuse about how he had been testing Newton's theory of gravity. She had actually looked quite proud, as opposed to pissed off.

"Research for what?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. He had her interest, now he just had to follow through.

"The effects of extraneous factors on mother-daughter relationships?" That was the best he could come up with, and he knew right away that he had blown it. Temperance Brennan did not believe in psychology.

"Nice try. Since it's your birthday, I'll let you off. But..."

"There's always a but!"

"You have to go tell Bea that we're leaving in half an hour."

"Damn!"

"No swearing in the house! If you're going to do it, do it outside please." she called over her shoulder as she went back into the master bedroom.

* * *

Since Bea had had to uninvite Ryan, Brandon had had to uninvite his guest, too. Samantha had casually informed him that she had already made other plans anyway, so he was mulling that over in his mind. She must have forgotten that he had asked her to come along, because surely she wouldn't have made plans with someone else regardless. But how could she have forgotten that he had asked her to spend his birthday with him? And she was friends with Bea – she wouldn't have seen his twin discussing her birthday but forget about him, would she? He had to figure this out.

He went up to Bea's room and knocked on the door. "What?" She was always so eloquent...

"Did Sam mention anything about tonight?"

"Just that she was going to the cinema. She seemed pretty excited."

"Oh."

"Uh-huh, some guy from drama club asked her," she continued, disregarding the hurt look on her brother's face as something else. "He's on the football team, I think, although I'm really not sure what he sees in her. Is that all, cause I need to finish doing my hair?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Bea."

- - - - The Dinner - - - -

Dinner that night was spent in a very uncomfortable silence. Brandon sat stirring his spaghetti mindlessly, trying to telepathically let Samantha know that he hated her. Bea was giving their dad the stink eye from across the table, and their mom didn't appear to be too happy with him either, probably since he was the cause of all the tension. Astrid seemed to be happily oblivious to the fact that no one responded to her as she chatted away, but she talked enough for all of them at the best of times so she was obviously used to it. She did stop talking, however, when their dad scraped back his chair and cleared his throat.

"We're supposed to be celebrating, so why the long faces? Bea?"

"Like you don't know."

"Oh, don't start! You know why I don't like Ryan."

"But you don't even know him!"

"I know enough."

"It's not like he killed anyone!"

Temperance put her hand on her eldest daughter's shoulder and looked over at her husband. "Please don't make a scene, you two, or I will not be happy." You could tell when she used that tone that you only got one warning. "Bea, you'll understand what your dad is saying when you have daughters of your own. And Seeley," she shook her head. "As much as I hate to say it, she's old enough to make decisions about who she dates. Brandon, what's up with you?" She gave her husband a look, and then turned to her son.

"Samantha dumped me for a football player."

"Well, that happens sometimes. But if she thinks that she deserves someone better that you, then she's sorely mistaken. It's her loss. If you want, we can egg her house on the way home."

"Thanks mom."

"No problem, kid."

Temperance couldn't believe it – she had just given her first real piece of motherly advice that didn't involve homework or bullies, and it hadn't completely backfired. And she had even managed to to get Seeley to think about easing up on his 'strict father' routine. It had taken her sixteen years, but she had finally cracked being a good mother.

A/N2 It took me five hours to write this chapter. I literally sat down at one PM and finished it at six PM. That has to be a personal best. And it's quite long, too! OK, never mind, I'm rambling. R and R please!


	17. Seventeen Weeks

A/N Oh my gosh, penultimate chapter! It took me a while to get into this story, but now that I'm well and truly stuck in, it's over! OK, so I hope you like this chapter, and I hope you don't think it's too... dramatic? Unrealistic? I don't know, I just want you to enjoy it! If anyone has any ideas for the last chapter, that'd be awesome – I'd quite like to go out with a bang (character death, anyone?) so let me know if you have any thoughts. R and R please (but no flames!)... And remember, kids – safe sex! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

Temperance and Seeley had become well known in their neighbourhood for their barbecues. Seeley had become very actively involved in the local 'barbecue syndicate' as he called it, where each family on their street would take it in turns to host a gathering in their backyard. Tonight, like every ninth week in the summer, it was the turn of the Brennan-Booth household. The party was well under way, the beer was flowing, and Seeley was just about to put the first burgers on the grill. He could see his wife bustling around the kitchen now, her dress billowing out behind her, and while he waited for her to bring out the uncooked food from the kitchen he idly picked up a knife and poked it into his empty beer can.

"Son of a...!" He cried out as he cut his finger. A small red bead of blood seeped out of the wound, and he instinctively stuck the digit in his mouth to get rid of it. He grimaced at the sharp pain. "Jack, don't let anyone touch the grill; I'm going to get a band-aid."

Whistling along to the stereo, Seeley went to wash his hands in the rarely-used bathroom that was part of the garage conversion. It was there when they moved in seventeen years ago, and it had been used less than ten times – it had been more or less converted into a storage area where Temperance kept her plants in the winter and Brandon kept some of his more foul-smelling experiments. There was nothing too horrible in there right now, though, since they figured another bathroom with access to the outside would be useful for their barbecues. The place kind of freaked him out – plenty of dark spaces for rodents or insects to hide in, and if you were otherwise engaged (as you tended to be in a bathroom) then you may get a nasty surprise.

As the tossed the wrapper of his small bandage into the waste bin, he noticed something else in there. Odd, considering it had been his job to put the bin liner in there yesterday, and he was pretty sure no one would have used the bathroom since. The Special Agent part of him took over, and before he knew what he was doing he was crouched down beside it, and gingerly tipping it towards him so he could get a better look at it's contents.

And that was when he saw it.

* * *

When the barbecue was over, Seeley found Temperance in the kitchen, putting left-over food into Tupperware boxes and washing out the empty dishes. She looked up as he came in, and started to worry when she saw the look on his face. "Are you OK?"

"Is there something you want to tell me, Temperance?" He had waited until everyone left, and was starting to think he had imagined the whole thing. And he couldn't decide whether he should be happy of terrified. He settled for being confused.

"No... Should there be?" She wondered what he was talking about as she dried off her hands on a dishcloth and turned to lean against the counter top so she could look at him.

"Nothing you want to get off your chest?"

"Well, no. But you obviously think so."

After thinking for a moment, he just came out with it. "Temperance – I know."

"Know what? Why are you being so cryptic?"

He shook his head in frustration. "I know about the baby."

"What baby?"

"I found the pregnancy test, and I want you to know that it's going to be OK – I mean, we're not as young as we used to be, but we certainly won't be the only people to ever have a baby at our age."

"Slow down a second! I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You're not pregnant?"

"No! What on earth gave you that idea? It's this damn dress, isn't it?"

"I found a pregnancy test in the garage bathroom."

"Well it isn't mine!"

"Then whose is it?"

* * *

With a scientist mother and a Catholic father, when it came to the 'birds and the bees', there had been a lot of conflicting advice. Her mother held the view that sex is natural and with the proper precautions could be very enjoyable. She was truthful to the point that it was sometimes a little disturbing. Her father was not so liberal in his views – in fact, his only view was: "Don't do it. Ever."

Not that Bea used that as an excuse. As a somewhat gifted scientist herself (although not as gifted as her brother), she knew what it took to make a baby and blamed herself entirely for the situation. If she had been sensible and thought with her head instead of another more determined part of her body then she could have prevented this whole thing from ever happening. Something went wrong seventeen weeks ago, and she could have prevented it if she'd been a little smarter.

She had thought about a termination for all of twenty seconds, just long enough for her to realise that she would never forgive herself if she went through with it. And the thought of giving her baby away wasn't much better. So she was out of options, with no one to talk to. Her parents didn't know yet and they wouldn't know for a while if things worked out, Brandon would give her a lecture about contraception, thirteen-year-old Astrid would totally blow the secret, and Ryan... Well, Ryan had cried when she told him. And he hadn't called since.

What Bea really wanted was her mother. She had done this before, she had had a dilemma about what to do, and she had made the right decision at the end of it. But getting help from her would involve _telling _her. A part of her wanted them to find out – that was probably why she had subconsciously left the pregnancy test in the bathroom – it would be easier than her having to tell them. But the other part of her just wanted to hide away and pretend this whole thing wasn't happening. How the hell would she tell them that she'd ruined her life? That all their hopes for the future were about to be smashed by her inability to remember a little thing like birth control?

* * *

Temperance decided it would be best to wait until tomorrow, when her husband had hopefully had time to cool off, before confronting their daughter. Neither of them had slept that night, but now it was morning she hoped he would be feeling a little better about things. Boy, had she been wrong...

They went into the situation calmly enough, sitting Bea down at the dining room table when Brandon was in his bedroom (where he stayed for most of the day) and Astrid was at her dance class. Seeley let Temperance do most of the talking, which mostly involved her trying to get Bea to open up to them. They started off asking her about school, then friends, and after about half an hour he had got so frustrated that he blurted out that they knew about the baby.

Bea started to cry, then Temperance cried, and even Seeley cried a little – he hated seeing his daughter cry, but especially when there was nothing he could do to help her. She excused herself to get a tissue to wipe her eyes, leaving her parents downstairs.

"I'm not old enough for this. I'm only fifty-two, I shouldn't be a grandfather!"

Temperance thought he was about to cry. She remembered how hard it had been to tell him that she was pregnant, but the way he was reacting now was the way she had feared he would react back then. He seemed both angry and distraught.

"Well it's not like she's old enough to be a mother, either. She doesn't need a lecture right now, Seeley, she needs us to support her."

"Support her? I don't think I can even look at her right now."

"Don't you think you're being a little hypocritical?"

"Because all of my children were born out of wedlock? It's hardly the same thing! She's just a kid!" He sighed and held his head in his hands. "What are we going to do?"

"Lets give her so time to decide herself, then whatever she chooses, we go along with one hundred percent." She walked over and held him. It would be tough, but it would be fine if everyone helped out. Or at least she hoped it would.

"When I look at Bea I still see my little girl. She can't cope with a baby of her own, she's too young."

"She'll cope if she knows we'll be right behind her every step of the way. But you have to stop acting like this is such a tragedy. Worse things happen."

"What? This isn't what I wanted for her."

"Do you think it's what she wants? All she wants right now is for us to put our arms round her and tell her that it's going to be OK."

"But this isn't OK! Why are you being so calm about this?"

"Because yelling at her and locking her in her room isn't going to change anything. This isn't going to go away, Seeley. If she decides to keep the baby, then she'll need help. I'll be there for her, I'll do whatever she needs me to – will _you_?"

* * *

He had thought long and hard about what Temperance had said. This was his way of helping. This was his way of being there. And he was doing what his daughter needed him to do right now.

Seeley pulled up to the house in his SUV. He hadn't thought about what he was going to say – he never got that far without his heart rate increasing rapidly and his breathing becoming laboured. As he looked out of his open window, he noticed how similar this house looked to his own. The same porch, the same oak door, the same plants planted out front Walking up the path, he tried to keep himself calm before he banged on the door. It opened almost immediately.

"Mr Booth," Ryan said, feeling both suspicious and weary. He knew this wasn't going to be a social visit. "What can I do for you?"

"Why don't you step outside so we can talk privately?" He cast a glance over the boy's shoulder and noticed his mother busy in the kitchen.

"OK. What's up?"

"Listen to me very carefully, Ryan." Seeley suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him closer. "Are you listening?"

"Yes..."

"Yes, SIR."

"Yes, sir." Ryan repeated, his mouth feeling dry all of a sudden.

"That's better. Now, I'm only going to say this once, you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"If you make my daughter cry again, I will make you cry. I will make you cry like a little girl. And I will make you hurt so bad you'll wish you were never born. Do we speak the same language, Ry?" He spoke softly, which made his threats all the more menacing. And he used his 'lets all be friends' voice. Then the dark expression that had clouded his features moments before was gone, to be replaced with a smile that made Ryan want to run back into his house and cower under the bed. "So," he continued, brushing his hands together as if trying to shake his FBI persona. "I'm sure you were just about to go inside and call my daughter to tell her that you'll be there for her every step of the way. Am I right, Ryan?"

"Yes, sir."

"Great. Well, off you go. Don't keep her waiting."

"No, sir." He started to scurry back into the house when he heard the older gentleman clear his throat. Perhaps foolishly, he thought it would be wise to turn to look back in his direction.

"Say, Ryan. How about we keep our little talk between us? I would hate to have to kill you and break my own daughter's heart. But just in case..." Seeley stepped back up onto the porch, and put his face very close to Ryan's ear, so the boy could hear his steady breathing and feel his breath tickle the hairs at the nape of his neck. "Start thinking about the songs you want played at your funeral. It was a pleasure to see you again." And with that, he stepped back down again, walked down the path, through the gate, and got back into his car, pulling away before he had time to change his mind and go back to beat up the father of his grandchild.

A/N Woah, freaky – I'm watching the episode of Friends where they find the pregnancy test in Monica's bathroom right now... Anyway, hit that little button down there, please please please!


	18. Eighteenth Birthday

A/N Howdy! Last chapter, people, I hope you've enjoyed it! Before I start off on a ramble, let me just say, so as not to spoil this chapter for you, I'll leave my thoughts on it at the end. OK, so I've got another major Bones story in the pipeline (about two chapters completed), and if you liked this, then you'll probably like that too. Without giving too much away, I can tell you it involves some established Hodgela, some Temperance/Angela friendship, and some BB lovin' (hopefully!). So when I come back from holiday in late August it should be pretty much done. This is your last chance to review (I'd like at least three to get me up to 100) and get a reply, so please do! Thanks so much for taking the time to read my story, I'm simply not articulate enough to put into words how much your support means to me! [A/N This chapter was reuploaded on May 23rd 2010 due to page break errors]

"_Mother_, I can do this myself. Stop fussing. I have to learn sometime, right?"

"I know, but I just want to supervise. Support his head, Bea."

The two women were knelt down on towels in the bathroom beside the tub, giving baby Ben a bath – his first bath since he and Bea had come home from the hospital. Temperance had almost forgotten how small newborns were, but what she did remember was how scared she had been the first time she had bathed the twins, although that was probably more to do with the fact that she was alone for the first time with _two _babies while Seeley went to collect a very excited Parker from his mother's house. At that time, when sitting weeping in this exact same place, she was certain that she was going to do something wrong.

She was interrupted from her reverie when Astrid came in with a clean outfit for Ben. She was very much enjoying her role as an aunt, and was delighted that her job entailed picking out tiny baby clothes. Temperance was just glad that she didn't have to do that – they were still as expensive as they were eighteen years ago, but they did seem a little cuter. And on her grandson, everything looked adorable. Ben was an adorable baby, anyway, with lots of dark hair and the biggest eyes she had ever seen. Temperance knew she was turning into one of those grandmothers who would be forever getting out pictures of him to show to complete strangers.

Despite only having been a grandmother for a whole week, Temperance had been enjoying it immensely. Her mother-in-law had told her that it would be just like having her own baby, except she would only have to do the fun parts. That would have been true if Bea had been a little older – since she was still living at home, she was getting a lot of help from her parents and siblings. At first Temperance had been unsure whether she was ready to be a grandmother, purely because she felt too young, but as soon as she saw her grandson for the first time, she had forgotten what she was so hesitant about.

Her husband was stepping nicely into his doting grandfather role, too, despite his reaction when he found out about Bea's pregnancy. Once the shock had worn off, he had been very active in making sure his daughter knew what was ahead of her, not sparing her any of the gory details ("When those contractions start, you'll wish we sent to you a catholic girls' school!"). But he was supportive, driving her and Ryan to antenatal classes and ultrasounds. He was the first to hold Ben when he was born, after Bea, and you could see how taken the two were with eachother. He and Brandon were currently in the kitchen making dinner, and the three women could hear them laughing downstairs.

"They better keep quiet once I put Ben down to sleep. I'm so tired," Bea said, blowing soap bubbles off her hand. No one doubted her confession for a second – the dark rings around her eyes were proof enough.

"Me too!" Astrid added, never one to miss the opportunity to give an opinion. "He may sleep in your room, but he keeps us _all _up at night!"

* * *

Temperance and Seeley threw themselves down onto the sofa, exhausted after such a long day, and restedtheir feet on the coffee had planned to wait until Bea and Brandon got back before they went to bed, but neither of them thought they would be able to keep their eyes open for much longer – although that wouldn't be a problem if Ben had his kid enjoyed waking people up, especially when the whole family were home (and tired).And he definitely wasn't going easy on his had already been up to his crib four times, and Bea and Brandon had only been gone for an hour and a friends had arranged a not-so-secret surprise party for their eighteenth birthday, which they were both looking forward to – Bea especially, as she had barely left the house since she had given birth to Seeley hadn'twantedthem toenjoy themselves_too _much_. _It wasn't their birthday until next week, but they were all (Bea being the exception) returning to school after the summer in a few days, so they were trying to fit it in before life got too hectic.

"Lets never do this again."

"Deal."

"We're getting old, Seeley. I don't like it very much."

"I'm two years older than you, how do you think I feel?"

"Glad that you have a hot young wife?"

"Hot, yes."

"Shut up, old man." She pinched his thigh good-naturedly, relaxing further into the chair. "You're only as young as you feel. But right now I don't feel all that sprightly."

"We're not old. My dad is old. We've got plenty of life in us yet, Temperance."

Then the phone started to ring, and he pulled himself up from the couch to go to answer it. Some loon had locked himself in his house with his daughters and a rifle, and since Seeley was the hostage negotiator on call for that night, he had to go and try to talk him down. It was like any other time that he got called in early – he hung up, grumbled about it, got up to the bedroom to get his jacket and gun. And then he came back, kissed her goodbye, and walked out of the front door.

* * *

Later that night, Temperance crawled into bed at ten minutes to midnight, suddenly very grateful that she had recently spent a fair amount of money on a new mattress. When her head hit the pillow, her eyelids began to feel even heavier than they had felt a few moments earlier and she felt her body relax as she drifted off the sleep.

The feeling was shortlived, however, as she was roused from her slumber by the shrill ring of the phone from her bedside table. Grumbling to herself, and desperate for it not to wake Ben, she rolled over and felt around for it in the dark.

"Hello?" Whoever it was better have a good reason for ringing, because she could already hear her grandson stirring over the baby monitor that she seemed to have permanently attached to her hand when she was looking after him.

"_Am I speaking with Temperance Brennan?"_

"Yes, who's this?"

"_I'm sorry to call so late, Ms Brennan. My name is Arthur Hill and I'm with the FBI, I..."_

"My husband has already been called into work, Mr Hill, so your phone call has woken me up quite unnecessarily."

"_Uh, that's not my reason for calling. I'm afraid I have some bad news, ma'am. Agent Booth has been involved in an on-the-job shooting."_

"Oh my god, is he OK? What hospital is he in? I'll be there right away." She jumped out of bed and went to the closet to find a jacket to put on over her pyjamas. This would be the second time he had been shot, but the last time he had phoned her from the hospital himself. She remembered how mad she had been when she realised how much time had elapsed until he eventually called home. At least this time she knew what had happened and she wouldn't be left wondering why he hadn't come home. He would hate having to rest at home for the next few weeks, and he would be unbearable as she was trying to work in the office, so she would have to try and find some way of keeping him entertained.

"_Ms Brennan, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but he was pronounced dead at the scene."_

* * *

The next few days passed in a blur of tears and grief. Temperance remembered driving to the hospital with Ben in his car seat and Astrid asleep in the back-seat, but she didn't remember the journey at all – for all she knew, she had run every red light and been flashed by every speed camera. She hadn't been able to get in touch with Bea or Brandon, but she didn't want them to worry when they got home to an empty house. When she got down to the morgue to identify her husband's body, she had to leave the baby with the receptionist, and did so without even thinking about the consequences of leaving him with a stranger – she hadn't wanted to wake Angela to ask her to take him home with her.

She was then met by Seeley's boss, and she had mumbled something about how he was tired when he left the house, that that had impaired his judgement, he had poorer concentration. At this point it was early morning, and it was then that she had tearfully called the twins and her best friend. Angela had picked them up and they had all met at the FBI headquarters. She and Temperance had then gone in to talk with the the director of the bureau.

"What happens now?" Angela asked.

"Well, there will be an autopsy..."

"Why? Is it really necessary? You know how he died and who did it." Temperance wasn't sure if she liked the idea of someone cutting into her husband. She understood why it needed to be done, but that didn't make it any easier for her to hear.

"Because he was killed in the line of duty, it's standard procedure."

"Once the autopsy has been performed, you can start planning the next step. Ms Brennan, did you two ever talk about funeral arrangements?"

"No," she said quietly. "He didn't like to talk about it."

"Well that's something you'll need to think about. We have people you can talk to, if you'd like, to help you decide which option to go for."

* * *

She knew too much about death to make this decision. Her job as a forensic anthropologist made it impossible. The thought of his body slowly rotting and decomposing in the ground made her feel horrified. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see it playing out before her like in some kind of twisted horror film. Only she could switch off a film, turn away, and pretend she had never seen it. She couldn't do that now. The thought of his body being buried and breaking down, before returning to the earth, made her feel sick.

But at the same time, she couldn't have him cremated. She would be destroying the very things that, to her, made him who he was – his bones. They were what gave him his stature, they were what determined the way he walked, and they were what enabled him to be Seeley Booth. Temperance could tell so much about a person from their bones, as if they were a detailed record of a person's life. If he was cremated, it would be like she was erasing his memories, his achievements, his hobbies – it would be like she was erasing _him_. Since it was her who had to make the decision, she saw it as if she was killing him herself. And that was the one thought that had been keeping her up at night.

The job that made this so difficult for her was the same job that enabled her to feel more at ease with physical death. It let her feel detached, even. She understood well what happened after death, but she had only ever had to understand it in a clinical sense – everything she had been taught had gone out of her head when it was her husband who was dead. She could no longer think of death as just a life process. Now she thought of all manner of different synonyms. After being told that he was never coming home, death became: an instantaneous change of her marital status; another way for her to feel alone and cut off from others; something that drastically altered the lives of her family; a thing that she_ feared_. She had never feared death before.

She hadn't been able to go anywhere without seeing him. Her own house became somewhere that she dreaded, every inch of the place reminding her that she was a widow and that Seeley had been cruelly taken away from her. But she had to go home, all of her things were there. All of _his _things were there, too, in the exact place that he had left them. His shoes stayed next to the front door, where she always tripped over them and then stalked off to yet at him. She knew that the first time she turned the TV on when she got home, it would still be tuned to his favourite channel. Even silly things would remind her that he was gone, like the coffee maker always being set to start a few minutes before the time he had to leave for work.

She hadn't found the courage to go back into their bedroom yet. She didn't know why she couldn't, but every time she got close to the door her hand froze before she could turn the handle. And she definitely couldn't sleep in their bed, not yet. Perhaps she felt like seeing his side of the bed empty, still made up as he had left it, would really drill it into her mind that he wouldn't be coming home.

As Temperance sat on the floor outside of the bedroom she and Seeley used to share, she remembered the last time they had spoken. They hadn't talked about anything particularly meaningful, but it had been significant enough. Both had been tired. She hadn't told him that she loved him. It was just a rushed conversation before he got a phone call telling him he needed to leave for work straight away.

She was still sitting there when Angela came over a few hours later, finding her crying with her knees tucked up under her chin. Her friend had sat down beside her and let her cry on her shoulder, telling her that Seeley would not want her to be sad, which Temperance thought was ridiculous – if she had died instead, she would definitely want him to cry, at least a little.

"I don't want to go in there, Ange, but the funeral home guy said I have to pick an outfit for him to put on Seeley." She stifled a sob, hating to entertain the thoughts she had about what they did to him during the autopsy and what was going to happen afterwards. She shook her head and sighed. "This is all so wrong."

"Do you want me to do it?"

"No. I have to do this myself. I just want to get in and out as quickly as possible, OK?" She pulled herself up from the floor, assisted by Angela, and straightened her clothes out. She took a deep breath before reaching for the door handle, but before she could freeze up again she forced her hand forwards and gripped the metal in her fist. It took every ounce of strength she had to open that door, and she instinctively shut her eyes tightly as it swung forward. She just didn't want to see the bed, still made up the way they had left it, or his neatly folded pile of laundry that he had never had chance to put away. This was her way of avoiding the reality of the situation. "What do you think he would choose?"

"I don't know, sweetie. Did he have a favourite outfit?"

"He'd want to wear something smart. A suit." She sat down gingerly on the very edge of the bed, not wanting to be anywhere near it really, but needing something to keep her from collapsing to the floor and bawling her eyes out a little more. And there was definitely no way she could go into his closet. "Can you take out the navy blue one?"

"White shirt?"

"And the tie with the blue and purple squares." She had always hated that tie. It reminded her of a rug that she used to have, which had been bought for her by an old boyfriend. Whenever she saw that tie, it always made her think of the time when she had been so ill one night that she had thrown up on it and had had to throw it away (a tragedy in itself). She associated Seeley's horrible taste in ties with vomit.

"There's something in the jacket pocket."

"What?" Angela fished out an envelope from the inside pocket and handed it to her. Temperance opened it up and pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from it. She immediately noticed the handwriting as his regular chicken-scratch.

"Well? What does it say?" Angela took the letter from her outstretched hand when she had finished reading it, and began to read it for herself.

_Dear Temperance,_

_The only reason you could possibly have for rummaging in my best suit is that I'm dead. If I'm not, and I'm actually only downstairs, then put this piece of paper back in the pocket and forget all about it. If I really _am _dead, and I'm not in the ground yet, let me tell you how I'd like to be sent off so you don't have to decide yourself. Cremate me, please. Don't over think it like you usually do, don't worry about any anthropological symbolism – just tell the funeral home that that's what I want, and then leave it at that. Keep the ashes wherever you want, or give them to my parents if you don't want them. But the main thing I want you to do, Temperance, is be happy again. Even fall in love again, if that will make you happy. My life may have ended, but that doesn't mean that yours has to, as well. I hope you understand that. Just remember that I love you, tell the kids that I love them (although I hope you all already knew that), and remember to make the most of every day for the rest of your life._

_Love, Seeley_

_x_

_P.S. Tell my buddies from work that if they hit on you at the wake, then I WILL come back and haunt their asses._

* * *

Temperance closed the photo album and replaced it in its usual space on the bookshelf in the corner of the living room. Everywhere she looked in the family home, she was faced with reminders of almost every milestone in her children's lives. On the edge of the door were carved indentations depicting the height of all three of her children at various ages. By the fireplace was where Bea had taken her first steps. Out on the patio was where Astrid had fallen and cut her head open on the concrete paving. In the kitchen, when he had been strapped into his high chair to eat one of the 'interesting' varieties of baby food (stewed prune, probably), Brandon had said his first word, which just happened to be Bea. She hadn't been kind enough to return the favour – her first word had been 'no'. On the wall of the landing was the moulded impression of all three children's feet and hands, framed and hung, reminding her every time she walked past that they weren't babies anymore.

She brushed a tear from her cheek – reminiscing about her childrens' lives on this, the night before her twins birthday, made her think about how fast the past eighteen years had gone, and how fast the next few years would go too. Soon Brandon would be leaving for university, and Bea would be raising her own baby. Life would be going on as normal – just without Seeley.

A/N2 Right, so don't flame me and tell me what a bitch I am. Believe me, I don't feel good about this chapter at all. I took something that wasn't mine, and messed it up beyond recognition. I didn't want to do it, but I wanted to go out with a bang. I didn't want to kill a character because it seemed like a bit of a cop out, and it demands more than a chapter. But I've done it now. I hope you didn't think it was awful, I hope I did it right and I hope I haven't offended anyone by messing with the characters. This probably sounds stupid. But it matters to me – if I was the writer of Bones, I would take issue with someone killing something that I'd created. Anyway, let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.


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